# Black widow

Black widow may refer to:

## Spiders

* Black widow spider, a common name for some species of spiders in the genus Latrodectus

### American species

* Latrodectus apicalis, the Galapagos black widow
* Latrodectus curacaviensis, the South American black widow
* Latrodectus hesperus, the western black widow
* Latrodectus mactans, the southern black widow
* Latrodectus variolus, the northern black widow

### Eurasian species

* Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, the Mediterranean black widow or European black widow

### Oceanian species

* Latrodectus hasseltii, the redback spider or Australian black widow

## People
### Murderers

* Black Widows of Liverpool, two women hanged for murder in 1884
* Belle Gunness, 25–40 victims spanning from 1884 to 1908
* Vera Renczi (1903–1960), murdered 35 men, including her husband and her son
* Betty Neumar (1931–2011), dubbed "Black Widow" or "Black Widow Granny", accused of murdering one of her husbands
* Blanche Taylor Moore (born 1933), convicted murderer
* Griselda Blanco (1943–2012), Colombian drug trafficker, known for ordering or committing the murders of three ex-husbands
* Catherine Nevin (1950–2018), responsible for the 1996 murder of her husband in the pub they owned
* Stacey Castor (1967–2016), convicted murderer
* Lynn Turner (murderer) (1968–2010), convicted murderer
* Black Widow Murders, murders committed in 1999 / 2005 by two elderly women in Los Angeles
* Áurea Vázquez-Rijos, Puerto Rican women who hired a hitman to murder her ex-husband Adam Anhang in 2005 and was convicted in 2018
* Melissa Ann Shepard (born 1935), Canadian murderer
* Patrizia Reggiani (born 1948), ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, convicted of arranging his murder
* Chisako Kakehi (born 1946), Japanese serial killer; as of August 2023, awaiting execution for three murders
* Lyda Southard (1892–1958), American serial killer of husbands and other family members using arsenic from flypaper
* Esneda Ruiz Cataño (born 1968), Colombian serial killer of husbands for life insurance benefits from 2001-2010; is currently in El Pedregal Prison

### Athletes

* Jeanette Lee (pool player) (born 1971), so-called because of her fondness for wearing black
* Sonya Thomas (born 1967), top-ranked competitive eater

### Other

* Florentine Rost van Tonningen (1914–2007), Dutch neo-Nazi nicknamed Zwarte weduwe (Black Widow)

## Arts and entertainment
### Fictional characters

* Black Widow (Marvel Comics), the name of several distinct characters:
** Black Widow (Claire Voyant)
** Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)
** Yelena Belova
* In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Red Room (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is a program having trained several distinct Black Widows (Marvel Cinematic Universe):
** Natasha Romanoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
** Yelena Belova (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
** Melina Vostokoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
** Ruth Bat-Seraph (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
** Dottie Underwood
* The Black Widow, a Batman villain played by Tallulah Bankhead
* Black Widow, a character from the Saturday Night Slam Masters series of games by Capcom
* Natasha Kerensky, in Tales of the Black Widow Company, a supplement for the BattleTech video game

### Film and television

* The Black Widow (serial), a 1947 movie serial starring Bruce Edwards
* Black Widow (1951 film), a British film starring Christine Norden
* Black Widow (1954 film), starring Ginger Rogers and Gene Tierney
* Black Widow (1987 film), featuring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell
* Black Widow (2003 film), a film directed by Brad Turner
* The Black Widow (2005 film), DVD release title of film by Giada Colagrande, produced as Before It Had a Name
* Black Widow (2005 film), a Canadian film starring Sarah Slean
* "The Black Widow", an episode of Boston Legal
* Black Widow (2007 film), with Elizabeth Berkley and Alicia Coppola
* Black Widow (2010 film), starring Jack Scalia and Jennifer O'Dell
* Black Widows (2016 TV series), Scandinavian TV serial
* Black Widows (Indian TV series), a 2020 web series
* Black Widow (2021 film), a film starring Scarlett Johansson based on the Marvel Comics character
* Black Widow: A Land Bleeds, a 2017 Indian film

### Literature

* The Black Widow (Silva novel), 2016 novel by Daniel Silva
* Black Widow: A Novel, a 1981 novel by Christina Crawford

### Gaming

* Black Widow (video game), a 1982 Atari arcade game
* Black Widow Games, a computer games developer

### Music

* Black Widow (opera), by Thomas Pasatieri
* Black Widow (band), a British rock band
* Black Widow (Black Widow album), 1971
* Black Widow (Lalo Schifrin album), 1976
* Black Widow (In This Moment album), 2014
* The Black Widow (album)
* Black Widow Records, an Italian label

#### Songs

* "Black Widow" (Iggy Azalea song), 2014
* "Black Widow" (Pristin song), 2017
* "Black Widow", by Black Tide on the album Light from Above
* "Black Widow", by Mötley Crüe on the compilation Red, White & Crüe
* "Black Widow", by Children of Bodom on the album Hatebreeder
* "Black Widow", by U.D.O. on the album Animal House
* "Black Widow", by Dolores O'Riordan on the album Are You Listening?
* "Black Widow", by Donovan Leitch on the album Slow Down World
* "Black Widow", by In This Moment on the album Black Widow
* "Black Widow", by Lita Ford on the album Dangerous Curves
* "Black Widow", by Michelle Shocked on the album Short Sharp Shocked
* "Black Widow", by Alice Cooper on the album Welcome to My Nightmare
* "Black Widow", by Jefferson Starship on the album Winds of Change
* "Black Widow", by Booty Luv
* "Black Widow", by Link Wray and His Ray Men, B-side to "Jack the Ripper"
* "Black Widow", by Cage the Elephant on the album Melophobia
* "Black Widow", by Susanne Sundfør on the album The Brothel
* "Black Widow Pt. 2", by RZA featuring ODB on the album Digital Bullet
* "Black Widows", by Grave Digger on the album The Last Supper

### Rides

* Black Widow (ride), an amusement ride at Kennywood
* Black Widow, a roller coaster at Six Flags New England

## Military

* Northrop P-61 Black Widow, a World War II night fighter
* Black Widow II, a Northrop YF-23 prototype fighter aircraft, nicknamed after the P-61
* PMN mine, nicknamed Black Widow because of their dark casing
* Soviet submarine B-39, nicknamed Black Widow after having been sold off as a museum ship
* 421st Fighter Squadron, nicknamed Black Widows

## Other plants and animals

* Black tetra, also known as "black widow tetra", a freshwater fish
* Stygnobrotula latebricola, an ocean fish
* Geranium phaeum, a herbaceous plant species

## Other uses

* The Black Widow Pulsar
* Black Widow (paint mix), paint mix for projection screen
* Black Widow (Chechnya), term for female suicide bombers from Chechnya or Dagestan
* DHD(J), also called Black Widow, a subgroup of the militant Dimasa organization Dima Halam Daogah of Assam, India