h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry, but I seem to have found a slight error in this entry. It would be great if it could be fixed before the entry is edited.

In the Poisonous Spiders section, the entry reads: "The most common spider killer is the black widow, so called because it is black and the female tends to eat the male after mating. The black widow can be identified by the distinctive red hourglass marking on its abdomen. The combination of colours is the reason the black widow is known is Australia as the red-back spider."

Actually, I thought that the black widow and red back spiders are different. There is a lot of confusion about that, but although closely related, they are actually different species. Redback spiders are Latrodectus hasselti and black widows are Latrodectus hesperus. Generally, black widows do not have the red markings on them (although I'm not entirely sure about that, I know some have different types of markings). Males and females are different also. There are some good web sites around:
http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/redback.htm
http://www.rochedalss.eq.edu.au/redblack.htm
http://www.desertusa.com/july97/du_bwindow.html

I'm not an expert on this, so it could be that black widow is the general name for all spiders in that family, including red-backs, but then the entry should be changed accordingly. As far as I know though, the two spiders are different, and the web search seemed to have backed that up.

I propose some sort of change saying that the red-back spider is closely related to the black widow, and removing the part about how the black widow can be identified by the red hourglass. Red-backs can kill, but in Australia anti-venom is available so if people are treated quickly they rarely die or suffer ill effects.

I'm planning an entry just on redback spiders, and I shall definitely link to this entry. It's very comprehensive.

Thanks,

Niwt

Well, for the info and the compliment. I'm pretty sure that black widows do generally have the markings, but if I'm wrong, we'll have to wait for the editor to come and take a look.

Just checked one of those sites. Yeah, Ok, it appears that BWs and RBs are not in fact the same. Editor: could you change "The black widow can be identified by the distinctive red hourglass marking on its abdomen. The combination of colours is the reason the black widow is known is Australia as the red-back spider." To "A closely related species, the red back spider, can be identified by the distinctive red hourglass marking on its abdomen."

Niwt: when your entry enters PR, could you put a link here, as I would like to read it

I think the problem is that nobody is quite sure what exactly a "black widow" is. Some people use thate term to refer to that whole family of spiders - including redbacks - and others use it to refer solely to one certain species.

However, the way you have suggested the entry be re-worded sounds much better.

My redback entry doesn't seem to be very good at the moment, I would really appreciate any suggestions you could offer: F48874?thread=442998