Classification
Black Widow Spider Classification
Scientific Name: Latrodectus sp.
Common Name: Black Widow Spider
Latin Meaning: “Biting in secret” The spider got its name from the belief that the female consumes the male after mating thus making her a widow, the black part comes from the black color of the spiders body.
Domain- Eukarya
Kingdom- Animalia
Phylum- Arthropoda
Class-Arachnida
Order- Araneae
Family- Theridiidae
Genus- Latrodectus
Species- Latrodectus sp.
Figure 1. Female Black Widow Spider.
Latrodectus sp. is part of the Eukarya domain because it is multi-cellular. It is a part of the Animalia kingdom because the black widow spider has tissues and is heterotrophic. It is part of the Arthropoda phylum because of its segmented body and jointed exoskeleton. The black widow spider is part of the Arachnida class due to the cephalothorax and abdomen. It is in the Araneae order because of its external segmentation and respiratory system of book lungs or tracheae. The black widow spider is part of the Theridiidae family because it uses sticky capture silk to build its webs rather than woolly silk. It is the in the Latrodectus genus because of the neurotoxin latrotoxin that the females uses to bite and prey on insects and male black widow spiders. There are 32 species of Latrodectus sp. and the three main ones in North America are L. mactans, L. hesperus, and L. variolus.