found a spider in a shipping container..

[king7]

we had a container at work today (from canada) and i found a spider on it.normally i wouldnt keep them but this one caught my eye.

ill try to descripe it as best i can as i cant get a picture.

on the ventral side of the abdomen it has an hourglass shape that is a red/orange colour but the circumference has a yellowish colour to it.the hourglass shape has a point to it,kinda the king piece from a chess set.

the dorsal side of the abdomen has three red lines in the middle which are outlined by a thicker band of white.

there are three lines the same as the ones in the middle that are pointing diagonally (south) from centre to outside.(on both left and right sides of the abdomen)

at the top of the abdomen there is a horse shoe shape (the same colours as above)

the legs (from the tarsus going up) are slightly transparent every other leg segment.

hope you can understand my description ok...lol

 

[buthus]

Depends from what part of Canada it came from, but sounds like a sub-adult femal L. hesperus or mactans.
Let it grow up and see what markings it ends up with.

 

[king7]

it looks just like this but the colours are slightly different.

are they really venomous? and should i have it in my house?

cheers

http://bugguide.net/node/view/35855

*edit* found this one to which is exactly the same.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/28551

 

[cacoseraph]

these are my native species (edit: provided it is hesperus)
i don't think twice about them. provided a female doesn't have an eggsac they are very retiring and not likely to bite you at all.

they *are* more venomous than just about any known tarantula or centipede and have a host of nasty venom effects though.

but... i've known maybe 10 ppl that have been bitten out of thousands of people i know in Southern California, so they are not much of a threat at all.

i think they are pretty

 

[buthus]

I suspect the colors are washed out in thoughs photos. The greenish hue is actually probably orange or red.

 

[king7]

so i guess its a juvenile ans ATM its harmless right?

thx

 

[cacoseraph]

so i guess its a juvenile ans ATM its harmless right?

thx

it depends what you mean. it is certainly not going to try to get out and bite you and at that size they always seem more intersted in running away than standing their ground for me... but they do have pretty hideous venom, and this is coming from someone who likes to get bit by centipedes in their spare time, to test venoms out =P

 

[king7]

its just that i was reading that the males and juveniles are harmless,i presume because the fangs are to small to go through human skin.

 

[Parahybana3590]

I believe the females have the worst venom for protecting egg sacks.

 

[Henry Kane]

King7,
If it looks exactly like the pic in the second link, that's a male. Find someone with a female and make his day!

Take care..

Gary

 

[buthus]

Sub-adults can bite just fine, but you would have to be a complete jack-ass to ALLOW it to bite you.
There is far too much fear surrounding the myth of these spiders.
I live with many...probably several hundred hesperus in my yard. Right next to me on my puter desk I have 20 adult females and many sub-adults...not to mention all the slings. I have had escapees crawl across my desk right in front of me ...hey, what the heck are you doing out? I have no problem using my bare finger to munipulate them back into containers.
I have never been biten.
Facts:
Widows are shy. They do not attack anything that is not prey unless they are completely cornered. Widows dont seek out and bite big hairless monkeys because they don't like them around. Infact, I have a hard time finding widows outside the city. They have prospered because of man and are happiest living with human kind. I live amoungst 11million or so people and probably 100s of millions of widows. Yet, I cant remember the last time Iheard about a person getting biten. I know someone that has ...he was biten by a L. mactans down in Mexico. He got sick like having the flew for a couple of days. Yes, something to worry about if it happens, but hardly worthy of the dangerously evil reputation these spiders have.
more...
Most of the time females will ball up and drop away even when their egg sacs are threatened. They cannot jump. (jeeeze..ive heard this so many times ) They are feable and "blind" when seperated from their web.

You have a new interesting pet. Put in a large jar with plenty of ventalation holes in the lid. It will eat just about any insect you feed it. She will live for a year or two and be a great topic of conversation.

BTW...BileDrunk, I dont agree. 2nd link is not a male. It looks like a sub-adult female...probably hesperus. Hesperus males dont have bulbus abdomins like that... and i dont see male palps on that one.

 

[king7]

turns out the shipment was from california not canada.could it still be a L. hesperus ?



*edit*i was reading more about them and they do live in california so it looks like its a hesperus after all.

 

[king7]

got some pics just now...

 

[Sheri]

LOL! That happens all the time - but usually people see "CA" and immediately think california - canada doesn't even cross their minds!

 

[Splintercell]

Latrodectus specimen.

Hi,

I was just wondering, couldn't it be a Variolus specimen?
Kind regards, Tom.

 

[CustomNature]

Get some food in her!

 

[king7]

it wouldnt take an ant,i was trying to catch a fly but it wasnt happening...lol

 

[cacoseraph]

CA=Cali almost assures hesperus

fangs don't have to pierce your skin, just pierce the couple mm thick layer of dead hard skin. your skin is an organ and the widows inject venom that basically sets off chain reactions in your body, so i believe it doesn't have to like, get injected into your blood stream or whatever

and yeah, i use my fingers with them a lot too, but eventually some crazy accident *could* happen so i'd say it's a bad idea in general

if it has a web it can take suprisingly large prey. they are built to throw like, lassoes of silk with their hind legs (Theridiidae means comb-foot, for the special setae that let them do this trick) to wrap up their prey before they administer the bite, and their webbing is insanely strong

these are the champion eaters of different species for me... they can even eat rock bugs, something taras and my big old African preying mantis couldn't seem to figure out. even if you accidentily/purposefully kill a bug you can put it in the web and the spider will maybe/probably eat it

 

[P. Novak]

got some pics just now...

from these pictures it looks likea male Latrodectus, possibly L. hesperus. Find it a female!

 

[Venom]

King7:

While death from your spider's bite would be unlikely, you should know that it has happened before with this species. Bottom line = you have a black widow, and it IS dangerous. Juveniles are of course less of a threat than adults, but you should still take it seriously because it can definitely cause an agonizing and potentially dangerous envenomation. As for its behaviour, widows are usually very timid, and not the type to aggressively defend themselves...they usually just retreat, or drop and run when threatened. If a female has an egg sac however, they will defend it. Basically, they are easy to care for, and easy enough to be careful with--just don't underestimate it, and DO NOT handle it. Enjoy your spider, and be safe!