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

Murderers

 * Black Widows of Liverpool, two women hanged for murder in 1884
 * 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
 * Black Widow Murders, murders committed in 1999 / 2005 by two elderly women in Los Angeles
 * Áurea Vázquez-Rijos who hired a hitman for the murder of Adam Anhang in 2005 and was convicted in 2018
 * 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;, awaiting execution for three murders
 * Lyda Southard (1892–1958), American serial killer of husbands and other family members using arsenic from flypaper

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)

Fictional characters

 * Black Widow (Marvel Comics), the name of several distinct characters:
 * Black Widow (Claire Voyant)
 * Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)
 * Black Widow (Yelena Belova)
 * In the :
 * Natasha Romanoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
 * Yelena Belova (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
 * Melina Vostokoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
 * Dottie Underwood
 * 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
 * The 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
 * "The Black Widow", an episode of Boston Legal
 * Black Widow (2007 film), with Elizabeth Berkley and Alicia Coppola
 * Black Widow (2010 film), starring Jack Scalia and Jennifer O'Dell
 * Black Widows (2016 TV series), Scandinavian TV serial
 * Black Widows (Indian TV series), a 2020 web series
 * Black Widow (2021 film), a film starring Scarlett Johansson based on the Marvel Comics character
 * Black Widow: A Land Bleeds, a 2017 Indian film

Literature

 * 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 Halim Daoga of Assam, India