Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, commonly known as black widow spider, is well known for its dangerous bite. Although its venom has been characterized extensively, some fundamental questions about its molecular composition remain unanswered. The limited transcriptome and genome data available prevent further understanding of spider venom at the molecular level. In the present study, we combined ne...

Abstract The optical study of the heated substellar companions black widow (BW) millisecond pulsars (MSPs) provides unique information on MSP particle and radiation output neutron star mass. Here we present an analysis photometry spectroscopy a set relatively bright BWs, many newly discovered in association with Fermi γ -ray sources. Interpreting data requires sophisticated models companion hea...

Elrick, Donald B. and Milton P. Charlton. a-latrocrustatoxin increases neurotransmitter release by activating a calcium influx pathway at crayfish neuromuscular junction. J. Neurophysiol. 82: 3550–3562, 1999. a-latrocrustatoxin (a-LCTX), a component of black widow spider venom (BWSV), produced a 50-fold increase in the frequency of spontaneously occurring miniature excitatory postsynaptic poten...

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) and some animal neurotoxins (β-Bungarotoxin, β-Btx, from elapid snakes and α-Latrotoxin, α-Ltx, from black widow spiders) are pre-synaptic neurotoxins that paralyse motor axon terminals with similar clinical outcomes in patients. However, their mechanism of action is different, leading to a largely-different duration of neuromuscular junction (NMJ) blockade. BoNTs ...

The introduction of new species can have unpredictable effects on native communities. Understanding the potential for competitive interactions between widow spiders (Theridiidae: Latrodectus), and how they may shaped species’ geographic distributions, is critical predicting impacts biological invasions in this historically cryptic group. North America home to three widows (L. hesperus, L. macta...

Some species have sensory systems divided into subsystems with morphologically different sense organs that acquire different types of information within the same modality. Jumping spiders (family Salticidae) have eight eyes. Four eyes are directed anteriorly to view objects in front of the spider: a pair of principal eyes track targets with their movable retinae, while the immobile anterior lat...

Six new species of marpissoid jumping spiders from Sarawak, Borneo, are described in the new genus Tisaniba Zhang & Maddison. They are the type species, T. mulu Zhang & Maddison sp. nov., as well as the species T. bijibijan Zhang & Maddison sp. nov., T. dik Zhang & Maddison sp. nov., T. kubah Zhang & Maddison sp. nov., T. selan Zhang & Maddison sp. nov., and T. selasi Zhang & Maddison sp. nov. ...

Spider silk fibers have impressive mechanical properties and are primarily composed of highly repetitive structural proteins (termed spidroins) encoded by a single gene family. Most characterized spidroin genes are incompletely known because of their extreme size (typically >9 kb) and repetitiveness, limiting understanding of the evolutionary processes that gave rise to their unusual gene archi...