Informative Essay On Widow Spiders

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Theridiidae is a family of spiders called comb-foot spiders. The reason Theridiidae is called comb-foot spiders is because they have a row of setae on their fourth pair of legs. This helps the spiders to wrap their silk around the prey to capture it. Some of the species in this family have a practice of sexual cannibalism. Sexual cannibalism is when the female spider eats the male after they mate. The Theridiidae is known as the cobweb spiders. The types of the Theridiidae spiders I will be discussing are the widow spiders or know by the genus name Latrodectus. There are a lot of myths that people believe about the widow spiders, which make people afraid of them. I will give a description about them and correct any miss inform idea about them. …show more content…

One of them is that widow spiders are not always blacks. There is a belief that widows have to be black, but there are actually a lot different kinds of widow spiders. Two types of widow spiders are the red widow and brown widow. While some people believe both a male and female black widow can inflict dangerous bites, but most believe only female can thank to its size. While widow spider is known to practice sexual cannibalism, but it's actually a rare in the wild. While most people think black widows are the only one to practice cannibalism, but many insects and spiders do also. One of the most popular myths about the black widows is that their bites are fatal. The truth is while the bites might be painful and medical treatment is needed it rarely lead to death. Most of the black widow bites only cause mild symptoms, while some victims don’t even know they were bitten. From 2000 to 2008 a study found that out 23,000 documented widow bites not one ended in a death. Another reason why the bites result rarely ends in a death is because the volume of the neurotoxins injected is small. While the widow bit venom is 15 times as toxic as prairie rattlesnakes thank to how small the spiders their bite is less dangerous than the snake. Another myth is black widows are known to bite for any reason, but it's actually the opposite. Black widows are not aggressive spiders, and only bites with feeling

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