Press

ALBANY, N.Y. - A live black widow spider, extremely rare in upstate New York, has been donated to the New York State Museum, entomologists said today.

A Niskayuna family who had been keeping it as a pet collected it last autumn from outside their cellar window. The spider produced three egg sacs while in captivity, and spiderlings have recently hatched from a sac produced in mid-May.

While the black widow, Latrodectus mactans, is known to occur on Long Island and Staten Island, it seems that the climate is usually too cool in upstate New York for the species, according to entomologist Jeffrey Barnes.

Barnes said the only other live black widow spider he has seen from upstate New York came from a vehicle that had recently arrived from the Midwest.

"This Niskayuna specimen is the first naturally occurring black widow I have seen in upstate New York. This female is fertile and has produced spiderlings, indicating there are probably other black widows out there," Barnes said.

The reason might be that warming trends in recent years have allowed this species to spread beyond its former, more southern range, Barnes added.

The black widow will be euthanized and added to the State Museum's collection of 600,000 insects and arachnids that is used by researchers, both at the Museum and at other institutions throughout the world.

Black widows tend to be rather shy around humans. A bite, however, can be painful with swelling, muscle spasms and other symptoms lasting up to three days.

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