A different sort of beauty

[pavel]

Well my Latrodectus bishopi has now revealed itself to be a male. Now I just have to find him a girlfriend.

[Paph]

Handsome guy, I think he will easily find a girl

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Will the girlfriend - EAT him after they, ummm, you know? Maybe he should remain a happy bachelor.

cheers,
BD

[orchidsal]

Bruce, I wonder if the poor guy gets to even enjoy his last minutes on this earth. I also always thought that 'lady' spiders were very much the original 'femme fatale'. AL

[cdayinflorida]

I love spiders. In fact, I had a banana spider that took up residence under the eve of my house. I protected her making sure nothing chemical drifted her way when spraying the orchids. She was there all summer, last year.
I noticed a large egg sack towards fall and knew my spider's life was coming to an end. The babies hatched and about a week later my spider was gone.
She was my Charlotte, straight out of Charlotte's Web.
Lovely photos, Al.

[pavel]

Will the girlfriend - EAT him after they, ummm, you know? Maybe he should remain a happy bachelor.
cheers,
BD

Spiders in general -- and the widows in particular -- actually got a bum rap on that score, BD. It's been observed that in the wild the male very rarely ever gets eaten. (Although there is one species of spider in which it is the norm. In fact, the male practically forces the female to kill him ... but that is another story altogether.) The original bad press was the result of the poor perimeters set by the scientists studying them. In natural settings, the male has plenty of space in which to move to put some distance between himself and the female should it prove necessary. In extreme cases, he would even abandon her web. However, the scientists who first studied them, out of sheer ignorance (and perhaps a lack of common sense) kept the couple in too small of a container. As a result, the male COULDN'T get far enough away when he needed to. This, coupled with the stress of keeping them under such cramped artificial conditions led to his demise. In the wild, it actually is not uncommon for the male to share the web with the female.

[zainal abidin]

Is it a poisonous spider?No doubt very handsome how aggressive it is when you provoke him?

[ang709]

Wow, it's amazing the myths that are passed on as facts. Thank you for clearing that up for us.

[pavel]

Is it a poisonous spider?No doubt very handsome how aggressive it is when you provoke him?

It is roughly as poisonous as the common black widow. Which basically means that a bite could make you feel quite sick for a while, but death is highly unlikely unless you already have a severely compromised immune system. As with the black widow, red widows will run away if given the option rather than biting.

[Orchidmorris]

Spectacular jaws!!!!! Full of venom I guess. From which country are you Paval? I just might start to search for a girlfriend here!
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