The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-06

Black widow spiders are rare in New England. According to records only l2 have been discovered in Connecticut in the past 25 years and most of these have been found Slngly. Last week, however, three persons out on a collecting expedi- ton brought 38 specimens to the asEiCulture experiment station at New Haven. The collectors were DE. and Mrs. B. J. Kaston and Douglas Riggs. Dr. Kaston is an entomologist at the experiment sta- ton and Riggs is his summer as- slstant.
 Tn telling the story of the expe- dition, Dr. KaSton said that Riggs had turned up Q rock during lunch and found two spiders under 1t. All then began hunting in the grass and under stones, and in short time they had taken 38 spiders in- cluding young, medium-sized and adults.
 A number of these have been kept alive at the experiment station 50 that their habits may be observed. Already several hundreds of young spiderlings have emerged from egg sacs.
 pr. Kaston believes that the find ing of this colony should cause no alarm in the state. Probably the winter of 1936-37 favored the pre- servation of black widows. He has hunted spiders in many parts of Connecticut and has never encoun- tered more than one of this species iS any locality previously. When found, they are extremely timid, running away if retreat is possible.
 They have no instinct or desire to bite humans, Dr. Kaston asserts. And contrary to popular belief, their venom is seldom fatal al- though it will cause severe pain and illness. It is well, therefore, to recognize the black widow and to avoid picking it up in the bare hand.
 The feature that distinguishes this from other spiders is the red, hour-glass marking on the under side of the shiny black abdomen, There are also varying number of tiny red spots on the upper side of the body and some diagonal white stripes on the back of the male. The female spider is much larger than the male. She has an almost spherical body one-half inch long, and slender dark brown or black legs. The male has a flat ter abdomen measuring only one- sixth of an inch but has much longer legs. Both adults are black and hairless and have the chara:- terlstic red spots. Their marking varies in different sections of the country. When the spiderlings emerge they are reddish tan but gradually darken as they grow older.
 Black widows feed on any moving insects caught in the web, some- times binding their strong threads ab0ut a victim much larger than Themselves. According to custom in spsderdom, the female is liable to eaE her mate if she is hungry enough and if he is not quick about getting away after the mating. However, writes Dr .Kaston, there is at least one recorded case where q male was seen devouring the fe. male. The small spiderlings, too, are likely to feed on one another if no other food is available.
 Outdoors the black spider lives for about year. but specimens brought into the laboratory have survived for several months longer. The young usually reach maturity before winter when they hibernate under stones. Emerging in spring, they mate, after which the females may produce several pear-shaped egg sacs, each containing from to 800 eggs. Fortunately the infant mor- tality is high.
 There are two other common black spiders in Connecticut that are frequently mistaken for the black widow. Neither of these has the red markings, however, and one is hairy. The black widow is completely hairless and is glossy.
 Doctor Kaston deplores the fact that the reputation of the black widow has made people wary of all