LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Black Widow: Black Widow Spiders
built 215 days ago
The black widow’s name comes from a popular belief that the female spider kills and eats her partner after mating. However, this does not ordinarily happen, especially among black widows in North America. The belief developed because scientists observed the spiders in cages in a laboratory, where the males could not escape. When black widows live in nature, the males usually escape after mating.
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The black widow spider is a shiny, inky black spider with a large round tail segment (abdomen). Including its legs, the black widow generally measures from one-half inch to one inch in length. Red to orange-colored markings, usually in the shape of an hourglass, are found on the underside of the belly.
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This exercise is meant to serve as a tool to help students learn about the Black Widow Spider. It provides information so students will have a basic understanding about where the Black Widow lives, what it eats, and how it interacts with other spiders. This craft is not only educational but fun to make as well!
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The venom of the female black widow spider is 15 times as toxic as the venom of the Prairie Rattlesnake. Only a minute amount of the toxin is injected in a single bite by the spider ... so they are rarely fatal. By comparison, the relatively large amount of injected rattlesnake venom results in about 15 to 25 percent mortality among those bitten.
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A person who gets bitten by a black widow spider might not know it right away, since the bite can sometimes feel like a little pinprick. After 30 to 40 minutes, though, the area of the bite will swell and hurt a lot, and sometimes a person can get achy all over. Other symptoms can include weakness, nausea, vomiting, sweating, and headache.
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Distribution -- Though more abundant in the southern states, the black widow spider occurs throughout most of the Western Hemisphere. This species may hide in sheltered, dimly lit places such as barns, garages, basements, outdoor toilets, hollow stumps, rodent holes, trash, brush, and dense vegetation. Black widows usually seek dry, sheltered sites such as buildings during periods of cold weather.
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Black Widow Spiders