3 Types of Black Widows in Tennessee

3 types of black widows have a verified observation record in Tennessee. The most frequently recorded are Southern Black Widow, Northern Black Widow and Brown Widow. Here is the full list, ranked by how often each is reported on iNaturalist.

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3 types of black widows have a verified observation record in Tennessee. The most frequently recorded are Southern Black Widow, Northern Black Widow and Brown Widow. Here is the full list, ranked by how often each is reported on iNaturalist.

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Real sighting data, source iNaturalist

900 verified observations on iNaturalist of black widow have been recorded in Tennessee, most often in May, August, June.

When black widow are recorded in Tennessee

Verified species, source iNaturalist

3 types of black widows recorded in Tennessee

3 black widow species have a verified observation record in Tennessee, each with at least 10 confirmed sightings. The full list, ranked by how often each is recorded, is below.

1 of the 3 shown is recorded as introduced to Tennessee rather than native.

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    1

    Southern Black Widow

    Latrodectus mactans

    513 records
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    2

    Northern Black Widow

    Latrodectus variolus

    253 records
  • No openly licensed photo yet
    3

    Brown Widow

    Latrodectus geometricus

    20 recordsIntroduced

Counts from verified iNaturalist observations.

The Southern Black Widow (Latrodectus mactans) is the most commonly recorded, with 513 verified observations, about 65% of all black widows reported in Tennessee. If you spot a black widow here, it is statistically most likely to be this one.

Not every one of these is originally from here. Brown Widow is recorded by iNaturalist as introduced in Tennessee rather than native, so it arrived with human help rather than on its own.