Current Events > Racial Violence Escalating in the Spider Kingdom

(+) Yeah! (+)

Biologists in regions of the Southern U.S. noticed that the iconic black widow spider known for its telltale hourglass mark and venomous bite often disappeared when a different species, brown widows, showed up.

Now, new research published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America provides compelling evidence that the brown widows are indeed driving Southern black widows out, in part by attacking and killing the well-known arachnids.

"They don't seem to be good neighbors with each other,"

@dolomedes Thoughts?

It's Shatner's fault.

Wtf

Their spidey senses only tingle around them black widows.

omg. the black widow was just minding its own business too =/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em66NfFHygU

Yeah that's fucked. He crossed over into his neighborhood and dragged him back to parade him around on his streets.

I was hoping it was gonna be something harmless to me, now I gotta watch out for Brown Widows. Sonnn of a bitch.

A similar thing is going on in the reptile kingdom with invasive brown anoles driving out the green anoles.

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I would have never guessed those were made by a spider, good info.

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Is that safe?

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Wow, what makes it red? I figured they would mostly be white/tan with their webbing.

i think the black widow is what red backs originally were. Iirc, they came to Australia in the 1860s or thereabouts.

Edit: I am wrong:

It was believed at one time that the redback may have been introduced to Australia, because when it was first formally described in 1870, it appeared to be concentrated around sea ports.[10][59] However, an earlier informal description (1850) from the Adelaide Hills is now known, and names in Australian Aboriginal languages also show that it was present well before European settlement. Its original range is thought to be a relatively small arid part of South Australia and Western Australia.[56] Its spread has been inadvertently aided by modern buildings, which often provide habitats conducive to redback populations.[23] The close relationship between the redback and the New Zealand katip also supports the native status of both in their respective countries

ate too much spicy food

Yeah, I corrected myself after doing a bit of googling. I remember reading it back in 2005 in a popular science book. At the time, as you said, it sounded reasonable. Glad to know its sort-of one less invasive species to worry about (even though apparently they *now* think it started off in WA and ended up all over straya)

dolomedes, you have officially turned this topic into nightmare fuel

not looking at any pictures but are brown widows bigger and/or more vicious than black widows?

for you? yes. for the spiders? no.

is there any chance at all that trying to smash those egg sacs may fail and that a tiny army may be released like in so many terrifying gifs

Spiders right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYy77IGsBFc

I assumed "spider kingdom" was the correct way to refer to Australia.

call the animal kingdom cops!

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LOL reminds me of when I was doing honours. I accidentally walked through so many webs made by golden orb weavers. They kinda sorta looked a tiny bit like skulltulas.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/3/5/AAe-sxAAEUbL.jpg

Their webs were *very* strong.

I'm glad I raised awareness.

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They look like chips on the left

It's called competition

Even over the last couple years I've seen significantly less black widows in my area of SoCal. I used to put one in a small terrarium each year, but now I leave them alone if even see one.