Talk:Black widow spider

Redirect target

Since this is "black widow spider", I suggest that the redirect to the article about such spiders be restored, to allow the reader to more quickly find the sought information. -- JHunterJ (talk) 02:48, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I couldn't agree more. I just found one in my bedroom and I don't want to be forced to choose a particular species before I get any information, I want to read an article about black widows GENERALLY! How did such a redirect get implemented?? I also formally request a reversal. KDS4444^Talk 09:33, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Since there is no article about the three species of Latrodectus called black widows this needs to redirect to the disambiguation where the three species are listed. Djapa Owen (talk) 02:17, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

I have just finished composing a new article to replace the one current DAB page. The article will now be a review in several paragraphs of black widow spiders generally and will list the specific species at the bottom. I think this will be a much better approach to this topic than the DAB page as it is. If anyone disagrees, please notify me. Thanks. KDS4444^Talk 01:39, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

Female is twenty times the size of the male?

This claim in the article is ambiguous. Does it mean mass or length? It probably means mass since the body of the female might be a little more than twice the length of the male and the male seems to be a bit thinner in form. So just based on the mass is proportional to the cube of the length kind of reasoning a female black widow might be about 20 times heavier than a male. I also didn't see a reference for the claim, even though my guess is that it is about right.

Overall nice article and a good thing to do. I am a little biased since one of my pictures was used, but I think I would have liked it even if the author hadn't used one of my pictures.--Davefoc (talk) 06:34, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

And what an excellent picture it is! Allow me to thank you personally for making it available. Nice work there! In other news, two things: first, you are absolutely correct when you say that "20 times the size" is much too vague. I agree that a more likely phrasing would be "20 times the mass", and I will change the article accordingly post haste. Two, the reference for the claim is actually given at the end of the paragraph. Rather than "cite" every statement as I make it (which becomes tedious for the reader) I try to follow the Wikipedia MOS with regard to the placement of citations, and do my best to stick them at the end of paragraphs unless there is something specific within the paragraph that really needs to be pointed out and cited immediately. The cite for the "20" figure comes from ref #4, Small Animal Toxicology. The original author [carelessly] said "20 times the size." The editors should have caught that and changed it, but obviously didn't. For shame! But thanks for pointing it out, and thanks again for making the photo of the male Latrodectus available-- it is a fine shot with fantastic clarity. KDS4444^Talk 18:38, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

Latrodectus vs. "widow spider" vs. "black widow spider"

Are Latrodectus, "widow spider" and "black widow spider" synonymous? Widow spider redirects to Latrodectus, but Black widow spider has its own article, which however seems to treat the term as being identical with Latrodectus. Should Black widow spider and Latrodectus be merged, or is there a significant difference I am missing? Iapetus (talk) 11:41, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

I have now looked into this, and here is what happened: some time ago someone created a redirect from Black Widow Spider to Latrodectus, but did not create a similar redirect for Black widow spider, which then got turned into an unnecessary DAB page, which was not really a good idea, and then the current article, which was a better idea but was mistakenly based on that bad idea. Conclusion: this article needs to get turned into a redirect at last, and as should have been done long ago. Let me see if I can do that myself. KDS4444^Talk 05:16, 29 July 2014 (UTC)