Gynandromorph Widow?

[Latrodaddy]

Hi, everyone,

I have a specimen of Latrodectus bishopi I was wondering if someone might be able to shed some insight on. I’ve attached some photos below for evaluation.

In terms of size and shape, I think she’s very obviously a female; she’s nearly half an inch long after at least three molts. However, her pedipalps seem noticeably engorged, which I understand to be a trait exhibited only by males in this genus. Furthermore, I have two other females of this species and while they’re both the same size as this one, they don’t have engorged pedipalps as she does.

Based on the attached images, can anyone advise if this is a normal (if not, perhaps, uncommon) physical variance in females of this species? Or might it be possible that this specimen is a gynandromorph?

Thanks!

 

[Patherophis]

It is a normal male. They do have the same body shape as females until mature, this seems to be sub-adult.

 

[Latrodaddy]

Thank you for the feedback!

I’ve got a couple male L. geometricus that are older than this spider by a couple months, and they’re much smaller than this one, so I’d supposed that this one was a female based on size alone. I’d not been able to find any clear pictures of male red widows to compare it to online. Do you know how large males of this species usually get, or do you think it’s safe now to assume that this one is done growing?

 

[Biollantefan54]

It looks like it has one more molt until it’s a mature male

 

[darkness975]

Final molt is approaching.