3 Types of Black Widows in Virginia

3 types of black widows have a verified observation record in Virginia. 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 Virginia. 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

1,787 verified observations on iNaturalist of black widow have been recorded in Virginia, most often in May, June, September.

When black widow are recorded in Virginia

Verified species, source iNaturalist

3 types of black widows recorded in Virginia

3 black widow species have a verified observation record in Virginia, 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 Virginia rather than native.

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    1

    Southern Black Widow

    Latrodectus mactans

    881 records
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    2

    Northern Black Widow

    Latrodectus variolus

    648 records
  • No openly licensed photo yet
    3

    Brown Widow

    Latrodectus geometricus

    36 recordsIntroduced

Counts from verified iNaturalist observations.

The Southern Black Widow (Latrodectus mactans) is the most commonly recorded, with 881 verified observations, about 56% of all black widows reported in Virginia. 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 Virginia rather than native, so it arrived with human help rather than on its own.