Latrodectus (Theridiidae) Picture Thread

[mackids]

Female L.Variolus feeding on cricket.

 

[LongDucDong]

 

[KUJordan]

Here's my prized adult female L. variolus. This is the one that I bred with the gigantic male I posted previously. Three words- She is hott!

 

[buthus]

Wow! She is truely a unique girl!
Hope she produces some offspring that are a chip off the ol' block!

 

[mackids]

I second the above comment. She is a 'bute! the first image first appeared like a hellfire widow!

hopefully her kids will be just as attractive

 

[Glen Southern]

KU: She certainly is a prize. I also thought it was an Ex. Laos at first glance. Some nice shots there.

 

[Glen Southern]

Some hesperus mating shots.

This first one was a none starter. An older male coming to the end of his time (I called him Bushy ) and what I thought was a healthy female. He made all the right moves but no actual mating took place while I was in attendance. May be shy!. However, less than a week later she produced an egg sac, almost certainly not his children given the time-scales. The following night I found her hanging dead in her own web. No idea why and nothing to help me work it out.

So, I was lucky enough to receive 2x fantastic Virgin hesperus adult females last week. I allowed them time to feed up and make a decent web. I then introduced Bushy to one of them and he performed for the cameras like an old pro. I am now going to retire him off to a nice tub in a warmer section of the cupboard and feed him loaded Crix till the end of his days.

 

[KUJordan]

Glen- those pics are insane!!

 

[Gigas]

Glen- those pics are insane!!

Took the words right out of my mouth!

Those pics illustrate mating PERFECTLY Glen!

 

[Scott C.]

Holy crap dude! Nice pics!

 

[LeilaNami]

It's the western black widow.

There's a total of 5 widow species in the US:

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

The last is an introduced species that pretty much lives throughout the warmer parts of the world, the others are all native. The northern and southern are both fairly common where I live.

Wade

don't forget the false widow

 

[ShadowSpectrum]

don't forget the false widow

You mean Steatoda spp.? They don't belong on that list, because its a list of the true widow species (Latrodectus spp.) in the US.

 

[swatc1h]

1 of 4 that molted this morning

 

[Mechanical-Mind]

Latrodectus geometricus:

Best regards,
-Matt

 

[KUJordan]

Matt, I don't know why (so don't ask) but for some reason when I look at that third L. geo pic, I can't help but think of afros, bellbottoms, and discos.

Those are some great pics though...those are different individuals in the pics, yes?

 

[Mechanical-Mind]

Heh, Very observant. Yes, the last pic is of a different spider than the first two.

Regards,
-Matt

 

[Splintercell]

bishopi molting

Hello,

Here a few (unsharp) pics of my bishopi molting.
I hope to have some better pic's soon.

Greetz@all, Tom.

 

[KUJordan]

That's so cool how when the L. bishopi molt, they seem to have a crazy translucent pink quality to them.

 

[Splintercell]

Latrodectus lilianae

Hello@all,

Here are some pic's of my adult lilianae female.
She got adult just a week ago.

Greetz@all, Tom.

PS: By the way, she is huge, more than 5 cm span.

 

[KUJordan]

Wow! She definitely looks awesome!