New Record of Brown Widow Spider (Latrodectus geometricus Koch, 1841) in Ha’il Region, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Brown Widow Spider (Latrodectus geometricus) is recorded for the first time in Hail Region of Saudi Arabia .Three specimens of brown widow spider (L. geometricus ) were found and collected on October, 2021 from inside a beehive in Al Hait city (Southern of Ha’il region of Saudi Arabia). The specimens were collected and submitted to Biology department of Hail University for the identification of morphological characters and DNA barcode sequence analysis of the specimen. Phylogenetic analysis was performed to compare the DNA sequence of the newly discovered female brown widow spider with the other species of Latrodectus genus.