Jamie Ferguson, age 11, of Thomasville, N.C., for his question:

WHY DOES THE BLACK WIDOW EAT HER MATE?

The black widow is a busy black spider with a downright rotten reputation. In the world of humans, a bad reputation is almost sure to be exaggerated as the tale is passed from person to person. The same thing often happens when we circulate tales about one of nature's animals. True, the black widow spider is a mean female to be avoided. But she is not as mean as some people would have us believe.

    Almost all spiders have fangs and poisonous glands. When molested, they tend to jab in a dose of poison, though in most species both the fangs and poison are too weak to do much harm to humans. All spiders feed on juices extracted from their victims. They build many types of ingenious traps to capture insects, plus insect size victims who may be other spiders. Since the black widow is a spider, the fact that she has poisonous glands and may be a cannibal is no surprise.

However, her poisonous venom is worse than most, and once in a while her cannibalism may include her husband. But researchers who have studied her in detail insist that her black reputation is greatly exaggerated. She is a handsome spider, dressed in shiny black with a bright red patch, shaped somewhat like an egg timer, on the underside of her fat, round abdomen. She measures about half an inch, and the male of the species is quite a bit smaller.

Mating occurs when he hands her a package of sperm cells, wrapped in silken webbing. These are placed in her egg pouch and used as needed to fertilize many future batches of eggs. Observers insist that the male usually scuttles away to court other female black widows. But not always.

Sometimes a female black widow mistakes her mate for one of the tasty victims trapped in her web. She binds him in silken thread, jabs him with digestive juices and makes a meal of him. Usually this happens when the male is rather old and feeble and too slow to scoot out of her way. Obviously she has no strong family feelings, and a slow moving male within reach is too tempting to resist.

Like most spiders, the black widow is shy and tries to avoid humans. But when cornered or scared, she jabs in her poisonous fangs. The wound is very painful and needs medical attention. Once in a while, when the victim is very old, very young or sick, a black widow bite may be fatal. During the past 200 years, we know of only about 50 persons in the United States who have been killed by the venomous black widow.