Black widow spiders are named for
the female's habit of eating any small
intruder that disturbs her web including her
mate. The male literally live only to mate. A
male seeks out a female's web, courts her,
mates and before he can philander further,
she bites and eats him.
Female black widow manufacture one
of the worlds most potent venoms. Desert native
Americans once used to crush black widows bodies
to poison their arrows, fortunately, black widows
are not aggressive-they retreat into their web
and bite only if cornered, so the chance of
dying from a black widow's bite is slim, much
less than the chance of being struck by lighting.
The females are coal-black, about an inch-long, and easily identified by bright scarlet markings on the
underside of their abdomen. The
smaller, light brown, venom-less spiders are the males.
The praying mantis lives in widespread areas in the tropics. They display a wide range of colors and forms. When the mantis looks at its prey, it automatically adjusts the distance and angle for its strike.
While the mantis usually eats smaller live insects, the female mantis eats the male during mating or right afterwards.
But the most important thing about a praying mantis is that it is the only insect that can turn its head to look directly behind it.
Black widow:
Praying Mantis(Mantis religiosa):
