The black widow spider is a shiny black. The female spider has a red mark on her belly. The mark looks like two triangles put together. The mark looks like an hourglass.

The black widow spider is found around the world. In the United States, this spider is found mostly in the south. It likes to live in dark, dry places.

The male spider is much smaller. It has red and white stripes. The male is not seen very often. The female black widow spider kills the male after mating. The life of the male spider is very short. It will only live a couple of months.

The female lays four to nine sacs of eggs in one summer. Each sac holds 250 to 750 eggs. The young spiders break out of the sac in 14 to 30 days. Only one to twelve young spiders from each sac will live. If a black widow spider survives, it can live for several years.

This spider spins a web to catch its food. The female black widow hangs upside down in its web. When it catches food, it wraps the prey in spider silk. She bites the prey to kill it. Then the spider sucks the food from its prey.

The black widow spider is shy and stays hidden in its web with its belly up. Her red mark warns you to stay away. It will bite if you bother the web. The female black widow spider bite is very poisonous.