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+--- Thread: Article Black widow spiders are getting slaughtered by aggressive brown widows (/thread-13809.html)
Black widow spiders are getting slaughtered by aggressive brown widows - C C - Mar 15, 2023
https://gizmodo.com/black-widow-spiders-killed-by-brown-widows-invasive-1850218560
EXCERPTS: Three species of black widow are native to the United States; brown widows are believed to be native to Africa but are now present on all continents but Antarctica.
While black widows are a shy spider species—only getting aggressive when they are pinched or pressed—brown widows seek out black widows to bite. Bit(e) by bit(e), in a pattern first noticed a decade ago, the black widow spiders are being displaced by the interlopers. The team’s research is published today in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America.
[...] “Brown widows are not labeled invasive. They’re still non-native,” said study lead author Louis Coticchio, a spider biologist specializing in the widow and recluse families, in a phone call with Gizmodo. “If it does come out that the introduction of brown widows is absolutely the main reason why we’re seeing a huge decline in black widow populations, I would love to see the attitude towards them changed.”
In 2018, researchers found that northern black widows (Latrodectus variolus) were expanding their range northward; in the west and south, it appears their world is shrinking due to the aggressive incursions by the brown spiders... (MORE - missing details)