black widow

(plural: ‘black widows‘; for the right pronunciation, please click here)

a large female black widow

a kind of spider – arachnid – small, black in colour with a red mark in the shape of an hour-glass; typically four pairs of legs (eight legs); female is bigger than male – on average, .5 inch long and 1.5 inches long when spread the legs, weighs one gram, and male half the size of female; lives for 3-5 years; feeds (eats) on insects; spins (weaves) a web (cobweb); three species found in North America and in some countries in Europe

Special Features:

the large female and the small male

It is one of the most poisonous spiders in the world.

The adult female is completely black with an hour-glass shaped red mark on the underside (abdomen).

And it is called a widow (widow = a woman whose husband is dead) because the female eats up the male immediately after mating, and this extraordinary feat is found in only one species (kind).