HPA: Brown widows, not black widows found in Male’

Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said that the spiders discovered from Motherland in Maafannu district of Male’ on Friday night were brown widows and not black widows – as initially thought.

A senior HPA official spoke to “Sun” on Saturday and said that a team from HPA and Maldives Police Service were still operating at the scene where the spiders were discovered, and that the results of the assessment so far led them to believe they were brown widow, less dangerous than black widows.

Unlike black widows, toxins from brown widows are usually confined to the bite area and surrounding tissue. Furthermore, brown widows cannot deliver the same amount of venom as the black widow – making them far less dangerous.

The brown widows found in Motherland had already laid eggs.

Meanwhile, the more dangerous black widows have also been spotted in Maldives from time to time.