Black widow id?

[Crotalus]

Most of the american cars imported to Sweden come from California so I would guess its a hesperus you got (I think your spider was found in a car?)

/Lelle

 

[Kugellager]

Cool...it was a stowaway? Nice prize if it was. Keep feeding it and in the mid 70F's and it will make more egg sacs...like I said earlier you should be able to get two or more adults from each hatched sac...if you feed them pinhead crickets at an earlier stage you might get more.

I feed my adults a larger cricket every 2-3 weeks. Feed your gravid female a cricket every one or two week to keep it making egg sacs.

John
];')

 

[El Johano]

Most of the american cars imported to Sweden come from California so I would guess its a hesperus you got (I think your spider was found in a car?)

Correct, in an old "amerikanare"

Keep feeding it and in the mid 70F's and it will make more egg sacs...like I said earlier you should be able to get two or more adults from each hatched sac...if you feed them pinhead crickets at an earlier stage you might get more.

Yeah, I really like the fact that they thrive in room temperature and low humidity, makes everything a lot easier.

But I will get a lot more adults from each eggsac than that, I already have 50 young widows separated, they are all about 1 cm in legspan. On top of that I've sold about 30.
I feed them pinnheads and fruitflies, works great.

 

[Kugellager]

I guess I'm looking at it from a different perspective...there are so many out here in Colorado that I just let them cannibalize themselves down to about 5-10 per egg sac before I start feeding them. It isn't worth it to me to take the time to get as many as possible to survive when they are so common.

Interesting thing to note is that I have never got a single male out of any of the individuals I have raised to maturity. Luckily enough I have found one or two males in my garage or around my house if i want to mate them.

John
];')

 

[xanadu1015]

I'd love to get one of those black widows.



By the way, that girl was beautiful...nice pics




Laura



OldHag,

You could send a black widow my way

 

[OldHag]

Xanadu....Check your PMs.!!
Michelle

 

[cricket54]

Hey Michele (just can't call ya an old hag, you're too young!) How long have you had the widow? I've been trying to get Laura's sister to send me the one she found out in Red Lands, CA. Apparently there are a lot of them out there. I would think that all of these in America, even if the hour glass shape isn't the same on them all, could breed and produce offspring. The ones in CA look just like the ones we had all over in NC and the ones I saw in Alabama. I love these spiders and wish I could find one in NJ, but I just don't think they are here. The winters are too cold for them to survive I would think.

Sharon

 

[Kugellager]

Sharon,

There are a few species that may be combined if anyone ever does a genetic study on them(L.hesperus and L.mactans). However, there are some species of widow spider that should not ever be capable of interbreeding. Below is a list of the species of widow spiders in the US. There's a total of 5 widow species. If you check out the link in one of my earlier postst in this thread you can see my photos of L.hesperus and L.geometricus...you can see they are quite different form one another.

L. hesperus (western black widow)
L. mactans (southern black widow)
L. variolus (northern black widow)
L. bishopi (red widow)
L. geometricus (brown widow)

Just another note for everyone...the more accepted term for these spiders is "Widow Spiders" and not "Black Widows" as you will see from the photos. There are a few other species around the world that are mostly red or have more red or brown markings...do a search for L.corallinus for instance: http://www.gifte.de/latrodectus_corallinus_bild01.htm

Beautiful spiders to say the least.

John
];')

 

[da_illest]

Originally posted by Navaros
Awesome, great pics! What do you keep the babie widows in that's secure? I would like to try hatching an eggsack and letting the babies take care of each other till I have just a couple left. Need to find something large enouigh for them all and secure.

you could use one of those tall deli cups

 

[Kugellager]

I use a pill vial or some other small container with only pinholes for ventilaton. Any larger than pinholes and the babies could escape...you don't want that.

John
];')

 

[OldHag]

Sharon
Ive had this widow since about August. Its still eating and active and looking good. Our winters out here get to below 0 degrees. Just last week it was -12 DAMN cold! The widows survive out here just fine. They THRIVE infact! I dont know what kind we have out here, but I like them. Theyre wonderful.
I had some guy tell me the other day that if you put your hand in its web it will attack.....yeah...right...Ive caught HUNDREDS if not thousands of them in my life time and have NEVER once had one "attack" me. They all have run away and hidden with out exception. BAH people are so uninformed its sickening. They see a blackwidow and CALL THE EXTERMINATOR the baby is gunna get bitten in its sleep pfffft

 

[MichaelaB]

Hello all!!

My name is Michaela and I´m coming from Germany.
First sorry for my bad english ;-)

I´ve got a few questions about Latrodectus.
I´ve got a Latrodectus female which named by Latrodectus mactans. But I think that is not a L. mactans.
Please take a look at my pictures and tell me what you think about this widow spider. I´m not sure what kind of widow it is.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Kugellager]

I'm very certain that it IS a Latrodectus spp. of some sort. The best method to identifiy the species is to know the location of origin.

Michaela,

Do you have a good idea of where the spider was collected? That would go a long way in narrowing down the identification. If you are pretty sure that it is from North America then it could be L.hesperus, L. mactans or L.variolas. The shape of the hourglass marking on the ventral side of the abdomen varies quite a bit in all three species I mentioned...The marking shape varies most with L.hesperus.

The red marking on the dorsal surface of the abdomen is not uncommon in adults of this genus. You are more likely to see the extra red marking on sub-adults though it is not uncommon on mature adults. I have several mature adult L.hesperus that have similar red markings.

John
];')

 

[tom]

latrodectus id.

Dr. Willis Gertsch often stated that L hesperus was larger than L.mactans and the hourglass was more fuller at the base in mactans.L. hesperus being more pointed and so much red- orange at times. As previously was mentioned., egg cases can often help identify species.Color variations in hourglass design even within species are not uncommon. Remember recent DNA studies concluded that L.hesperus may not be different genetically from L.mactans.

 

[buthus]

I had some guy tell me the other day that if you put your hand in its web it will attack.....yeah...right...Ive caught HUNDREDS if not thousands of them in my life time and have NEVER once had one "attack" me. They all have run away and hidden with out exception. BAH people are so uninformed its sickening. They see a blackwidow and CALL THE EXTERMINATOR the baby is gunna get bitten in its sleep pfffft

I just posted some pics of my hand in the web of one of mine. She fist thought me food and then turned to check me out and when she felt my finger she attacked. (frontal approach with the intent to bite) Though, you are correct...in general especially in the wild, they will hide as soon as anything of substantial weight/force triggers their web. At the same time, they have been known to attack for a few reasons. One being that if they don't register your presence as a significant force, they may mistake you as food. You would have to try to be that gentle though. Another case is when you invade their inner sanctum especially if they have an eggsac. Though, I believe most bites occur when someone gets the widow and web tangled against their skin.
I have found that the individuals that I have kept become much more forgiving and many times very bold during my general doings such as clean up of their enclosures, grabbing sacs or toying around with them. Individuals have different personalities thus their reactions very, but overall most that I have had rarely run and hide or ball up and drop like they do in the wild. Infact some are truely curious and/or bold enough to attack when I invade their webs.

I not sure if they can interbreed...However, I have heard somewhere...I forget where...that L.hesperus and L.mactans might just be regional variations of the same species...if that is so the may eventually be merged into one species.

I have yet to try this myself, but I have read a few sources (one being on this board if I'm not mistaken) that claim interbreding not only does occasionally happen the wild, but can be forced in captivity by tricking the male in believing that he has found a female of his species. This is done by transfering a female to webbing of another species, letting her settle in just enough time to get comfy and add a male of the same species as the female that made the web. I have no problem imagining this happening (occasionally) in the wild. The question is...which species will follow all the way through and when it does happen, will the egg sacs be fertile or will the young be genetically strong enough to mature?


I have been attempting to list every known latro species. Please contribute additions, corrections or details!

Latrodectus apicalis Galapagos archipelago

Latrodectus curacaviensis Americas

Latrodectus mirabilis Argentinian south Patagonia

Latrodectus antheratus Paraguay & Argentina

Latrodectus diaguita Argentina

Latrodectus quartus Argentina

Latrodectus veriegatus Argentina

Latrodectus mexicanus Mexico

* Latrodectus mactans-mexicanus ? (same as above)

Latrodectus mactans U.S.A., warm regions worldwide

* Lactrodectus schuchii ?? aka Latrodectus mactans (old name?)

Latrodectus variolus U.S.A (northern black widow)

Latrodectus hesperus U.S.A (western black widow)

Latrodectus geometricus Africa, U.S.A. (brown widow)

Latrodectus hystrix S Europe, N Africa, SW Asia, Yemen, Socotra

Latrodectus dahli S Europe, N Africa, SW Asia

Latrodectus cinctus southern Africa. Also found in Cape Verde and Kuwait

Latrodectus indistinctus South Africa and Namibia

Latrodectus karooensis S. Africa

Latrodectus menavodi Madagascar

Latrodectus obscurior Cape Verde, Madagascar

Latrodectus renivulvatus Africa. Also in Saudi Arabia and Yemen

Latrodectus revivensis Israel (Negev)

Latrodectus rhodesiensis Zimbabwe

Latrodectus atritus New Zealand (the black katipo)

Latrodectus katipo New Zealand (the red katipo)

Latrodectus hasselti native to Australia. Transfered to Southeast Asia and New Zealand

Latrodectus lilianae Spain

Latrodectus pallidus S Europe, N Africa, SW Asia

Latrodectus tredecimguttatus Mediterranean area, central Asia, Kazakhstan

Latrodectus elegans China, Myanmar, Japan

Latrodectus erythromelas Sri Lanka

Latrodectus tadzhicus ?

Latrodectus perfidus ?

Latrodectus formidabilis ?

Latrodectus dotatus ?


Hoping to get 2 or maybe all four of the species found in S. Africa. My contact is all gun-ho regarding the mission and legalities of shipping have been researched and dealt with (knock on wood). If this venture is succesful, it will be just a matter of finding others around the world that are able and/or willing to take my money and send me other species. Then with some luck going towards breeding, I could have fun sharing the bounty with other spider enthusiasts. It would be great to have more of these species available. Yet, I'm not so ignorant to think that a few spiders contain enough genetic material to support a hobby. And I also understand that some of you have been attempting this.

 

[P. Novak]

Ive had my 3 females produce many eggsacs, what exactly are you feeding your babies?