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Comments & ID Thoughts
4x Western Black Widow. I thought they were all female, but after zooming in, one of them appears to be a male.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Aug 9, 2020
- Photographed: Aug 2, 2020
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Logan, New Mexico, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.)
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes:
Ah.. photograph was taken today, Aug, 9, 2020. I must have fat-fingered the date thing.
Interesting sub-story. I sprayed the first two females last night. Put them in the jar, then left the jar out. This evening I found the male curled up next to the jar. He must have gotten sprayed when I sprayed the webs, and crawled over to the jar before dying.
I found the third female dead (or at least nearly dead) in the web this evening.
That’s very interesting. I read a study about silk pheromones in Black Widows where they put empty webs spun by mature females out in the field, and caught a bunch of males. Apparently the webs scent signal males to come. After mating, the male will wrap the female’s pheromone-laden web in his own silk to prevent her from being harassed by other males. She will spin a new web that does not contain the pheromones.
I had no idea, thank you. That clears up one head scratcher.
So, now the question is.. does wearing a silk shirt turn you in to a spider magnet?
Hmm…
Hahaha! I think it would have to be silk spun by mature female spiders, of a species that uses silk pheromones. It is an interesting question, though, how other species find mates. And if anyone wants to find male Black Widows, all they need is a mature female’s web.