Black widow

Black widow may refer to:

Spiders

• Black widow spider, a common name for some species of spiders in the genus Latrodectus

American species

• Latrodectus apicalis, the Galapagos black widow
• Latrodectus curacaviensis, the South American black widow
• Latrodectus hesperus, the western black widow
• Latrodectus mactans, the southern black widow
• Latrodectus variolus, the northern black widow

Eurasian species

• Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, the Mediterranean black widow or European black widow

Oceanian species

• Latrodectus hasseltii, the redback spider or Australian black widow

People

Murderers

• Black Widow Gang, Colombian serial killer group
• Black Widows of Liverpool, two women hanged for murder in 1884
• Bodenfelde Black Widows, German serial killer duo
• Black Widow Murders, murders committed in 1999 / 2005 by two elderly women in Los Angeles
• Belle Gunness, 25–40 victims spanning from 1884 to 1908
• Vera Renczi (1903–1960), murdered 35 men, including her husband and her son
• Betty Neumar (1931–2011), dubbed "Black Widow" or "Black Widow Granny", accused of murdering one of her husbands
• Blanche Taylor Moore (born 1933), convicted murderer
• Griselda Blanco (1943–2012), Colombian drug trafficker, known for ordering or committing the murders of three ex-husbands
• Catherine Nevin (1950–2018), responsible for the 1996 murder of her husband in the pub they owned
• Stacey Castor (1967–2016), convicted murderer
• Lynn Turner (murderer) (1968–2010), convicted murderer
• Áurea Vázquez-Rijos, Puerto Rican woman convicted of hiring a hitman to murder her ex-husband Adam Anhang
• Melissa Ann Shepard (born 1935), Canadian murderer
• Patrizia Reggiani (born 1948), ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, convicted of arranging his murder
• Chisako Kakehi (born 1946), Japanese serial killer; as of August 2023, awaiting execution for three murders
• Lyda Southard (1892–1958), American serial killer of husbands and other family members using arsenic from flypaper
• Esneda Ruiz Cataño (born 1968), Colombian serial killer of husbands for life insurance benefits from 2001 to 2010; is currently in El Pedregal Prison
• Elfriede Blauensteiner (1931–2003), Austrian serial killer
• Martha Needle (1863–1894), Australian serial killer
• Nannie Doss (1905–1965), American serial killer
• Christine Malèvre (born 1970), French serial killer
• Margit Filó (1914–1979), Hungarian serial killer
• Heloísa Gonçalves Duque Soares Ribeiro (born 1950), Brazilian-American murderer and suspected serial killer currently on the run
• Mary Ann Cotton (1832–1873), English murderer and suspected serial killer
• Dena Thompson (born 1960), British murderer
• Margarita Sánchez Gutiérrez (1953), Spanish serial killer
• Marie Alexandrine Becker (1879–1942), Belgian serial killer

Athletes

• Jeanette Lee (pool player) (born 1971), so-called because of her fondness for wearing black
• Sonya Thomas (born 1967), top-ranked competitive eater

Other

• Florentine Rost van Tonningen (1914–2007), Dutch neo-Nazi nicknamed Zwarte weduwe (Black Widow)

Arts and entertainment

Fictional characters

• Black Widow (Marvel Comics), the name of several distinct characters:
  • Black Widow (Claire Voyant)
  • Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)
  • Yelena Belova
• In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Red Room (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is a program having trained several distinct Black Widows (Marvel Cinematic Universe):
  • Natasha Romanoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
  • Yelena Belova (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
  • Melina Vostokoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
  • Ruth Bat-Seraph (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
• The Black Widow, a Batman villain played by Tallulah Bankhead
• Black Widow, a character from the Saturday Night Slam Masters series of games by Capcom
• Natasha Kerensky, in Tales of the Black Widow Company, a supplement for the BattleTech video game

Film and television

• The Black Widow (serial), a 1947 movie serial starring Bruce Edwards
• Black Widow (1951 film), a British film starring Christine Norden
• Black Widow (1954 film), starring Ginger Rogers and Gene Tierney
• Black Widow (1987 film), featuring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell
• Black Widow (2003 film), a film directed by Brad Turner
• The Black Widow (2005 film), DVD release title of film by Giada Colagrande, produced as Before It Had a Name
• Black Widow (2005 film), a Canadian film starring Sarah Slean
• Black Widow (2007 film), with Elizabeth Berkley and Alicia Coppola
• Black Widow (2010 film), starring Jack Scalia and Jennifer O'Dell
• Black Widow (2021 film), a film starring Scarlett Johansson based on the Marvel Comics character
• A Widow's Game, a 2025 Spanish film originally titled, La viuda negra, "The Black Widow".
• Black Widow: A Land Bleeds, a 2017 Indian film
• Black Widows (2016 TV series), Scandinavian TV serial
• Black Widows (Indian TV series), a 2020 web series
• "The Black Widow", an episode of Boston Legal
• "Black Widow" (Marvel Studios: Legends), an episode of Marvel Studios: Legends

Literature

• the Black Widow, a car driven by the Spider (DC Comics)
• The Black Widow (Silva novel), 2016 novel by Daniel Silva
• Black Widow: A Novel, a 1981 novel by Christina Crawford

Gaming

• Black Widow (video game), a 1982 Atari arcade game
• Black Widow Games, a computer games developer

Music

• Black Widow (opera), by Thomas Pasatieri
• Black Widow (band), a British rock band
• Black Widow (Black Widow album), 1971
• Black Widow (Lalo Schifrin album), 1976
• Black Widow (In This Moment album), 2014
• The Black Widow (album)
• Black Widow Records, an Italian label

Songs

• "Black Widow" (Iggy Azalea song), 2014
• "Black Widow" (Pristin song), 2017
• "Black Widow", by Black Tide on the album Light from Above
• "Black Widow", by Mötley Crüe on the compilation Red, White & Crüe
• "Black Widow", by Children of Bodom on the album Hatebreeder
• "Black Widow", by U.D.O. on the album Animal House
• "Black Widow", by Dolores O'Riordan on the album Are You Listening?
• "Black Widow", by Donovan Leitch on the album Slow Down World
• "Black Widow", by In This Moment on the album Black Widow
• "Black Widow", by Lita Ford on the album Dangerous Curves
• "Black Widow", by Michelle Shocked on the album Short Sharp Shocked
• "Black Widow", by Alice Cooper on the album Welcome to My Nightmare
• "Black Widow", by Jefferson Starship on the album Winds of Change
• "Black Widow", by Booty Luv
• "Black Widow", by Link Wray and His Ray Men, B-side to "Jack the Ripper"
• "Black Widow", by Cage the Elephant on the album Melophobia
• "Black Widow", by Susanne Sundfør on the album The Brothel
• "Black Widow Pt. 2", by RZA featuring ODB on the album Digital Bullet
• "Black Widows", by Grave Digger on the album The Last Supper

Rides

• Black Widow (ride), an amusement ride at Kennywood
• Black Widow, a roller coaster at Six Flags New England

Military

• Northrop P-61 Black Widow, a World War II night fighter
• Black Widow II, a Northrop YF-23 prototype fighter aircraft, nicknamed after the P-61
• PMN mine, nicknamed Black Widow because of their dark casing
• Soviet submarine B-39, nicknamed Black Widow after having been sold off as a museum ship
• 421st Fighter Squadron, nicknamed Black Widows

Other plants and animals

• Black tetra, also known as "black widow tetra", a freshwater fish
• Stygnobrotula latebricola, an ocean fish
• Geranium phaeum, a herbaceous plant species

Other uses

• The Black Widow Pulsar
• Black Widow (paint mix), paint mix for projection screen
• Black Widow (Chechnya), term for female suicide bombers from Chechnya or Dagestan
• DHD(J), also called Black Widow, a subgroup of the militant Dimasa organization Dima Halam Daogah of Assam, India

See also

• Black Widower (disambiguation)