Black widow behavior reveals clues about Arizona's warming winters

Creepy and poisonous. It's usually a pretty good idea to keep your distance from these guys, black widow spiders. But ASU researchers are going all in, thinking the creepy crawlers on eight legs may be able to teach us a thing or two. Annalisa Pardo explains. Tis the season for the creepy and crawly. But at ASU's West Valley campus, that spidery season is year-round. They're just astonished. They're like, you actually work with black widows? You heard right, black widows. ASU students Catherine Smaz and Marissa France are research aides in the lab that's all about black widows and how they do so well in urban heat. It's interesting just to see how they're able to adapt and that's something that we could potentially follow in our own lives as humans. Also looking at how the desert males did in hotter temperatures versus the urban males. The desert males actually died faster when they were introduced to higher heat temperatures, which was kind of expected. The study showing the urban males may be found in an alleyway or shed have adapted to the heat caused by urbanization, like more pavement and car exhaust and less vegetation. The behavior of the arthropod critters also informing us on climate. Black widows, they're typically in the hot summer months, but we have been seeing the females stay out longer, which is really showing that our winters in Arizona have become increasingly warmer. The students are also using the Black Widow Lab to further their own studies as they pursue majors in forensic science. We are examining the epigenome of black widow spiders, which has not really been done before. Saying the benefits of the lab stretch well beyond these four walls and eight-legged creatures. It opened up a world of possibilities, which has led me to my other research lab that I'm a part of in toxicology on campus. Every discovery is always important in advancing science, so I'm very grateful to be a part of a lab that's able to do that. Annalisa Pardo, Fox 10 News.