Black Widow vs Redback Spider

[RedbackBreeder]

Hi people. I live in Sydney, Australia and where I live, we have our own version of the Black Widow - the Redback Spider.

I'm assuming that they are virtually identical, except the red dorsal marking which is only on the redbacks.

I have pet redbacks and I find that I can relate to information about the Black Widows, which is very nice

So here's my question:

Are there any other differences between these two? (e.g. size, venom potency, habits etc)

Can't seem to find any information on the internet.

 

[The Snark]

I asked the natural history museum in Darwin this exact question. To the best of their knowledge the North American Latrodectus and the Hasselti are identical, several million years removed. More info on the definitive site: https://sites.google.com/site/widowman10/

PS one theory put forwards is Hasselti is the primordial ancestor of all modern day Latrodectus. No solid substantiated proof exists to prove or deny this but given the age of the Aus fauna and it's isolation, it is a workable hypothesis.

 

[loganhopeless]

I watched this cool documentary about spiders.. I remember hearing about the two. They are basically the same disregarding the dorsal red back. But! They talked about how the red back has a slightly more potent venom (not much) and are generally more temperamental.


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[The Snark]

Just to clarify something. The 'Red back' spider, L. Hasseltii, suffers from the 'deadliest most dangerous' stigma in Australia. It is even common to find them being sold encased in lucite as decorations like the gear shifter knobs for vehicles. The myths and fables about this spider abound. The fact is it's venom is about the same as L. Geometricus, ~.55 mg/kg and ~,45 mg/kg LD mice, respectively. They have been reported to be more active than North American species but much of the observations done have been with a significantly higher ambient temperature and all Latrodectus are highly temperature sensitive.

 

[RedbackBreeder]

Thank you for the replies everyone!