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Widow Spiders
Latrodectus
Latrodectus is a genus of spiders in the family Theridiidae, most of which are commonly known as widow spiders. The genus contains 31 recognized species distributed worldwide, including the North American black widows (L. mactans, L. hesperus, and L. variolus), the button spiders of Africa, and the Australian redback spider. Species vary widely in size. In most cases, the females are dark-coloured and readily identifiable by reddish markings on the abdomen, which are often (but not...
35 branches of this genus, most-observed first

Western Black Widow
speciesLatrodectus hesperus

Brown Widow
speciesLatrodectus geometricus

Southern Black Widow
speciesLatrodectus mactans

Redback Spider
speciesLatrodectus hasselti

Northern Black Widow
speciesLatrodectus variolus

Katipō
speciesLatrodectus katipo

Latrodectus occidentalis
speciesLatrodectus occidentalis

European Black Widow
speciesLatrodectus tredecimguttatus

Red Widow
speciesLatrodectus bishopi

Latrodectus mirabilis
speciesLatrodectus mirabilis

South American Black Widow
speciesLatrodectus curacaviensis

Latrodectus lucacha
speciesLatrodectus lucacha

Inland Black Button
speciesLatrodectus renivulvatus

Latrodectus corallinus
speciesLatrodectus corallinus

Chilean Redback Spider
speciesLatrodectus thoracicus

White Widow Spider
speciesLatrodectus pallidus

Dahl's Black Widow
speciesLatrodectus dahli

East Coast Button Spider
speciesLatrodectus cinctus

West Coast button spider
speciesLatrodectus indistinctus

Latrodectus erythromelas
speciesLatrodectus erythromelas

Latrodectus lilianae
speciesLatrodectus lilianae

Latrodectus elegans
speciesLatrodectus elegans

Madagascan Black Widow
speciesLatrodectus menavodi

Latrodectus antheratus
speciesLatrodectus antheratus

Latrodectus obscurior
speciesLatrodectus obscurior

Latrodectus revivensis
speciesLatrodectus revivensis

Phinda Button Spider
speciesLatrodectus umbukwane

Zimbabwe Button Spider
speciesLatrodectus rhodesiensis

Karoo Button Spider
speciesLatrodectus karrooensis

Latrodectus quartus
speciesLatrodectus quartus

Latrodectus diaguita
speciesLatrodectus diaguita

Galápagos Black Widow
speciesLatrodectus apicalis

Latrodectus variegatus
speciesLatrodectus variegatus
Latrodectus hystrix
speciesLatrodectus hystrix
Latrodectus hurtadoi
speciesLatrodectus hurtadoi
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Latrodectus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 47370.