Black Widow Question?

bojesse57

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
15
I just caught this black widow today. It is definitly immature but was wondering if anyone could help me to identify whether it's male or female. Notice what seems to be the palps at the mouth that says it might be a male but I didn't know that males were black with a perfect red hour glass. Please help. If it's a male it would go great with my female when it matures.
 

Attachments

GPulchra

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
279
Only females have the red hourglass. You've got quite a deadly spider on your hands. I *sniff* wish I still had mine.
 

Jaymz Bedell

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Messages
186
the enlarged pedipalps indicate male. they're really quite obvious. unless they're an artifact of photography.

as for quite the deadly spider...for the young, old, and infirm possibly. but a little research just on arachnoboards alone tells quite the different story. painful, yes. make you WISH you were dead, possibly. quite a deadly spider...not according to medical records and a few minutes of research. I hate to point that out, but that kind of misinformation is easily debunked with just a little bit of research.

as to females only having the hourglass, I'm off to research that right now, since clearly we have a male here with a clear and easily recognizable hourglass.

EDIT: after 2, yes two, minutes of research on google images alone...I came up with 100s of photos, many of which clearly show various species of male widows with CLEAR hourglass markings...and here is the link

http://www.google.com/images?q=male%20widow%20spider&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:eek:fficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1277&bih=648
 
Last edited:

groovyspider

Arachnoknight
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
255
the enlarged pedipalps indicate male. they're really quite obvious. unless they're an artifact of photography.

as for quite the deadly spider...for the young, old, and infirm possibly. but a little research just on arachnoboards alone tells quite the different story. painful, yes. make you WISH you were dead, possibly. quite a deadly spider...not according to medical records and a few minutes of research. I hate to point that out, but that kind of misinformation is easily debunked with just a little bit of research.

as to females only having the hourglass, I'm off to research that right now, since clearly we have a male here with a clear and easily recognizable hourglass.

EDIT: after 2, yes two, minutes of research on google images alone...I came up with 100s of photos, many of which clearly show various species of male widows with CLEAR hourglass markings...and here is the link

http://www.google.com/images?q=male%20widow%20spider&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:eek:fficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1277&bih=648
*cough* i bet someone feels silly *cough*:p
 

Jaymz Bedell

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Messages
186
I hope he doesn't feel too silly. but I also hope he realizes theres a lot of misinformation passed around as truth, and worse yet, gospel. we know widows are fairly to very common in large parts of their range, we know bites happen, and that we don't hear about deaths with any frequency should show how deadly they aren't. the hourglass bit was actually debunked with the op's picture, but i felt it would be better to include more photographic references. I hope my post wasn't too harsh, and actually lead to a bit of education.
 

possumburg

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Messages
95
I have been told my entire life that a black widow bite would kill you in less than an hour. Also have always been told that males look absolutely nothing like females. Once I did a little research, I found that I had been lied to my entire life lol. That helped me a lot in getting over my arachnophobia. This thread is just further proof that there is a LOT of misinformation going around out there. Seems that everything I thought I knew about spiders were all lies or just plain misinformation. I know I didn't really contribute anything to this thread, just thought it was interesting.
 

Widowman10

Arachno WIDOW
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
4,212
hahahahaha {D

you have a nice, (looks to be, although color is funky) penultimate male widow there.



:embarrassed: and not only females have a red hourglass :embarrassed:

:embarrassed: and they are not deadly :embarrassed:

edit: i guess my internet timed out, as this reply is a little late! 3 or 4 other people posted before this hit! oops!
 
Last edited:

GPulchra

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
279
WHY ARE PEOPLE SO STUPID!? This show lied to me :'( - (pause at 1:26)
[youtube]UG4VNMA8TG8[/youtube]
 

Jaymz Bedell

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Messages
186
Animal planet isn't known for being a wealth of factual knowledge on animals. animal planet is around to entertain, scary sells. people enjoy having their fears confirmed, to decriminalize "creepy crawly" animals would make them boring to a lot of people. a 30 foot human eating reticulated python sounds a lot more exciting than a 15 foot goat eating reticulated python. I find that if you hear something about animals that aren't cats or dogs on animal planet its best to fact check. because they don't...fact check that is. 4 picture into my search of male black widows was pic #1 showing a male with a bright, clear hourglass. it makes it painfully obvious that they didn't fact check that show much, if at all. in a perfect world every show about reptiles, spiders, scorpions, ect. would be factual and non-sensationalistic in nature. however we live in a world where people scream for entertainment at any cost, and usually that cost is the facts. I learned something I was fairly certain of. I now know for sure, with absolute certainty, male widows have the hourglass marking...do they all have a clear, crisp hourglass, not from what I could see. but they still have the hourglass. I was also reaffirmed that animal planet should stick to cats and dogs.
 

Widowman10

Arachno WIDOW
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
4,212
which brings up an interesting thought i've never had. i'm not sure i've seen a male latrodectus that lacks an hourglass to the extent of the females... :?
 

jsloan

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 22, 2004
Messages
972
Some of the Animal Planet and National Geographic specials on spiders include great closeup photography. The trick is to watch these programs with the sound turned off.
 

Jaymz Bedell

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Messages
186
Some of the Animal Planet and National Geographic specials on spiders include great closeup photography. The trick is to watch these programs with the sound turned off.
which is exactly what I usually do!
 

joes2828

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 13, 2010
Messages
110
I thought females were the only ones with red hourglass markings, as the show said...? I haven't seen a male with a red marking. Clear/white, yes, but red, no. Is it just a specific species type of thing?
 

Moltar

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
5,438
I think the hourglass markings are pretty variable from one individual to another in most Latrodectus species. I've seen males here in Maryland that had 2 red dots underneath and sort of a line on the backside of the abdomen. I've seen females with no glass but a big red splotch on the back. I've seen pics of completely black ones.

What was my point? Oh yeah, variability. (Variable variolus... Ha!)
 

Widowman10

Arachno WIDOW
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
4,212
I think the hourglass markings are pretty variable from one individual to another in most Latrodectus species. I've seen males here in Maryland that had 2 red dots underneath and sort of a line on the backside of the abdomen. I've seen females with no glass but a big red splotch on the back. I've seen pics of completely black ones.

What was my point? Oh yeah, variability. (Variable variolus... Ha!)
yeah, with glasses, there is much variability. there is also (kinda like you mentioned) much variation in coloring and patterns within species across the range of the species (example: all-black northern northerns, and very colorful southern northerns. if that makes sense hahaha :razz:).
 

Moltar

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
5,438
Southern Northern, that would be like... where I live, right? I've noticed most of the ones I've seen had more red than the "typical" specimen. Specifically not just a well formed hourglass but also a splotch of red on the back side, above the spinnerettes. Do you think temperatures contribute to this variability?
 

Widowman10

Arachno WIDOW
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
4,212
Southern Northern, that would be like... where I live, right? I've noticed most of the ones I've seen had more red than the "typical" specimen. Specifically not just a well formed hourglass but also a splotch of red on the back side, above the spinnerettes. Do you think temperatures contribute to this variability?
i was thinking more "south" than maryland ;)

they have some crazy colors down far south!

i don't know. maybe it's just genetic variability because of range. i'm not sure. maybe it has to do with habitat too, who knows. maybe more genetics as most of the specimens from certain areas look like each other. just a guess.
 
Top