Latrodectus (Theridiidae) Picture Thread
- Thread starter Kugellager
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L hesperus mating
Regards Mikael
Regards Mikael
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Hesperus feeding on a Pholcus (phalangioides?)...
Was this one of your "Spider Wars"? I see your using a jar...
My Basement is just loaded with Pholcus, because of all the prey items I let escape. S. grossa is in second place, and I've found one Scytodes. Then there are the Scutigera coleoptrata. I have to clear the Pholcids out of my crix containers and enclosures where I have any babies.
I had read they sometimes win out over widows...
My Basement is just loaded with Pholcus, because of all the prey items I let escape. S. grossa is in second place, and I've found one Scytodes. Then there are the Scutigera coleoptrata. I have to clear the Pholcids out of my crix containers and enclosures where I have any babies.
I had read they sometimes win out over widows...
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L. hesperus
L. hesperus making a web
L. hesperus making a web
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Here's my latest L. mactans acquisition, captured while wandering the hall at the school where I teach. The janitor found her while sweeping, and as per my instructions, immediately went to the cafeteria and procured a souffle cup to scoop her into so he could bring her to me in my classroom, to the excitement of my Science class! I had him take her out to my car, though, lest some parent pitch a fit about the crazy teacher keeping Black Widows in the classroom! This one makes nine Latrodactus I've go altogether now.
pitbulllady
pitbulllady
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No ...I just use them as feeders all the time.
They do win out, but I no longer believe they prey on adult widows ...maybe now and then...but not healthy adult widows. They win out by closing in on the widows webbing with theirs. Their web is much too fine for the widow to navigate and the Pholcus themselves are perfectly designed to sneak around other spiders webbing. The pholcus webbing probably mutes the ability for a widow to sense activity in their web along with the fact that they evade the widows space, snaggle incoming prey and generally mess things up all around ...I believe the widow usually moves on before it gets out of hand.
Though I do think Pholcus (specifically their webbing) play an essential role in the distribution of hesperus, grossa and probably other theridid species. Male grossa and hesperus use old and new Pholcus webbing to navigate safely over large spaces. I also find slings crossing spances in my room using old dusty Pholcus web.
Anywho..spider meat...its good spider food and its whats often for dinner. :}
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So am i and the rest of my familly
]Hi folks, this is my second post (first was in the introduction thread) so I hope I don't do anything out of the acceptable around here. I've been taking pictures in my backyard of various spiders (mostly brown widows) over the last several months. This is my most interesting:
I had been taking pictures of this particular spider for a few months. There had been a funnel web spider living behind her web. I thought she was a black widow because she was black and there were two male black widows living in her nest. (I posted pictures of them in the latrodectus hesperus section of wikimedia).
Anyway my buddy came over and threw a moth into her web. Both the funnel web and she moved out to capture the moth. The funnel web spider moved back and the widow wrapped up the moth in less than a minute (I wanted to take a movie but before I could get my camera in movie mode it was over). And I thought that was it. I came back out in about a half hour and the funnel web was no more and there were these mysterious egg like things attached to the moth. By this time I had also noticed that there were several brown widow looking males in the web that had probably been there all along but were farther back in the recess and they are quite a bit smaller than than the black widow males so I hadn't noticed them.
So these are my questions:
1. What are the egg like looking things and where did they come from? I think Latrodectus deposit their eggs directly into the egg sacs so I don't think they are Latrodectus eggs, but they sort of look like them based on a Latrodectus egg laying video I just saw. Are they funnel web spider eggs? Maybe her instinct to lay eggs got the better of her and when she was about her business the brown widow pounced?
2. Is this a brown widow? I believe it is (but I'm not sure) because:
a. The hour glass is orangey red (not black widow dark red) and it has a yellow stripe. I uploaded a ventral view if anybody's interested.
b. The males look a whole lot different than black widow males and they were closer to the female than the black widow males. I notice brown widow males hanging out in brown widow nests a lot. The two clearly black widows in my yard don't have permanent male visitors that I've noticed.
c. It was somewhat smaller than the obvious black widows in my yard.
d. I've noticed this front swoosh on dark brown and black - suspected brown widows hanging out in my yard.
But maybe it's not because:
a. There were male black widows hanging out in the nest.
b. It was almost completely black.
c. Several similar images on the web are identified as black widows.
ETA: I meant to mention how amazing a lot of the images in this thread are. I had no idea the end of the male pedipalp unwound like that (sorry I don't know correct terminology right now).
I had been taking pictures of this particular spider for a few months. There had been a funnel web spider living behind her web. I thought she was a black widow because she was black and there were two male black widows living in her nest. (I posted pictures of them in the latrodectus hesperus section of wikimedia).
Anyway my buddy came over and threw a moth into her web. Both the funnel web and she moved out to capture the moth. The funnel web spider moved back and the widow wrapped up the moth in less than a minute (I wanted to take a movie but before I could get my camera in movie mode it was over). And I thought that was it. I came back out in about a half hour and the funnel web was no more and there were these mysterious egg like things attached to the moth. By this time I had also noticed that there were several brown widow looking males in the web that had probably been there all along but were farther back in the recess and they are quite a bit smaller than than the black widow males so I hadn't noticed them.
So these are my questions:
1. What are the egg like looking things and where did they come from? I think Latrodectus deposit their eggs directly into the egg sacs so I don't think they are Latrodectus eggs, but they sort of look like them based on a Latrodectus egg laying video I just saw. Are they funnel web spider eggs? Maybe her instinct to lay eggs got the better of her and when she was about her business the brown widow pounced?
2. Is this a brown widow? I believe it is (but I'm not sure) because:
a. The hour glass is orangey red (not black widow dark red) and it has a yellow stripe. I uploaded a ventral view if anybody's interested.
b. The males look a whole lot different than black widow males and they were closer to the female than the black widow males. I notice brown widow males hanging out in brown widow nests a lot. The two clearly black widows in my yard don't have permanent male visitors that I've noticed.
c. It was somewhat smaller than the obvious black widows in my yard.
d. I've noticed this front swoosh on dark brown and black - suspected brown widows hanging out in my yard.
But maybe it's not because:
a. There were male black widows hanging out in the nest.
b. It was almost completely black.
c. Several similar images on the web are identified as black widows.
ETA: I meant to mention how amazing a lot of the images in this thread are. I had no idea the end of the male pedipalp unwound like that (sorry I don't know correct terminology right now).
Nobody answered the questions in the post above. Perhaps because my questions were lame or maybe people were just uncertain of the answers.
I think I know the answer to the question as to whether the spider is a brown widow or a black widow now. I'll post the answer in a few days just in case anybody would like to provide their answer first.
A UCSD professor was kind enough to provide a theory as to what the eggs were. Apparently, some spiders when under threat will lay their eggs without making a sac first. His thought was that one of the spiders in the heat of battle laid the eggs as sort of a last ditch effort to get her progeny to live on.
I think I know the answer to the question as to whether the spider is a brown widow or a black widow now. I'll post the answer in a few days just in case anybody would like to provide their answer first.
A UCSD professor was kind enough to provide a theory as to what the eggs were. Apparently, some spiders when under threat will lay their eggs without making a sac first. His thought was that one of the spiders in the heat of battle laid the eggs as sort of a last ditch effort to get her progeny to live on.
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Gotta guess..semi-adult (1 more molt) fem hesperus ...thus the orangeish glass and prominent herring bone marking.
The male? ...wanna say its a geo. If that were the case he'd be just checkin out a possible future exotic lover. The male could be hesperus ...need a better image ...maybe top view... to check out his pattern. ...still, though, gotta say that looks like some of the geo males ive had.
The male? ...wanna say its a geo. If that were the case he'd be just checkin out a possible future exotic lover.
The male could be hesperus ...need a better image ...maybe top view... to check out his pattern. ...still, though, gotta say that looks like some of the geo males ive had.Thanks for the response bruthus.
You were right. I have mostly brown widows in my backyard and had noticed that they all had the orangey read hourglasses with the yellow stripe. So I began to wonder if this nearly all black spider that had the very similar hour glass wasn't a brown widow also.
The mystery for me had gone on for a few months when I got an email from a San Diego professor who I had contacted with a comment about how common brown widow spiders were in Orange Country, CA.
Anyway I decided to try to get to the bottom of this and I sent him the picture with a question about whether he thought it was a brown or black widow. Before he responded, I decided to try and find out for myself. I hadn't seen the spider for a month or so and I thought she had died in the rains or the cold of late. So I picked up the block over her retreat expecting to find a brown widow nest.
What was their was a very much alive widow and a clearly black widow nest. Unfortunately as she darted for cover I dropped the block and probably smashed her.
The professor responded that he suspected that the male in the picture was probably a hesperus male. This surprised me because they were about half the length of the larger clearly black widow males that had been hanging out in the web throughout most of the summer.
So now I am wondering if the orangey red hour glass with the yellow stripe isn't typical of immature L. hesperus and they acquire the more classic red hour glass without any sign of a yellow stripe on their last molt? I had read that there was a large range in the size of black widow males but this size difference really surprised me. The larger ones (not shown in the image) were probably about 6 mm. The male here might be 3.5 mm. Unless of course the smaller males were just brown widow males that had lost their way like you suggested.
There was another spider that I was following that looked quite similar to this one but it was a solid dark brown with a very similar swoosh in front of its abdomen to the one this one has. Do L. hesperus come in a dark brown version as well as the black version?
You were right. I have mostly brown widows in my backyard and had noticed that they all had the orangey read hourglasses with the yellow stripe. So I began to wonder if this nearly all black spider that had the very similar hour glass wasn't a brown widow also.
The mystery for me had gone on for a few months when I got an email from a San Diego professor who I had contacted with a comment about how common brown widow spiders were in Orange Country, CA.
Anyway I decided to try to get to the bottom of this and I sent him the picture with a question about whether he thought it was a brown or black widow. Before he responded, I decided to try and find out for myself. I hadn't seen the spider for a month or so and I thought she had died in the rains or the cold of late. So I picked up the block over her retreat expecting to find a brown widow nest.
What was their was a very much alive widow and a clearly black widow nest. Unfortunately as she darted for cover I dropped the block and probably smashed her.
The professor responded that he suspected that the male in the picture was probably a hesperus male. This surprised me because they were about half the length of the larger clearly black widow males that had been hanging out in the web throughout most of the summer.
So now I am wondering if the orangey red hour glass with the yellow stripe isn't typical of immature L. hesperus and they acquire the more classic red hour glass without any sign of a yellow stripe on their last molt? I had read that there was a large range in the size of black widow males but this size difference really surprised me. The larger ones (not shown in the image) were probably about 6 mm. The male here might be 3.5 mm. Unless of course the smaller males were just brown widow males that had lost their way like you suggested.
There was another spider that I was following that looked quite similar to this one but it was a solid dark brown with a very similar swoosh in front of its abdomen to the one this one has. Do L. hesperus come in a dark brown version as well as the black version?
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Awesome pictures guys.
Im awaiting my second batch of mactans mexicanus and some australian sp.....Im dying. Anyone else here have some redbacks, these seem to be very sensitive to inbreeding from my experiences.
Im awaiting my second batch of mactans mexicanus and some australian sp.....Im dying. Anyone else here have some redbacks, these seem to be very sensitive to inbreeding from my experiences.
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I have redbacks, and never had any problems with inbreeding. From my experiences it is a very 'strong' species.
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Hmm, must have been my music or something then...lol. I look forward to working with them this year, maybe this time I can make some progress.
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Simply beautiful
On another thread, but I figured they fit better here...
menavodi
On another thread, but I figured they fit better here...
menavodi
Tarantulysis
Arachnopeon
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I live in northeast Ohio and Ive never been able to find any,but Ive been looking for about 35 years!
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I live in northeast ohio too and have only seen one when I was a kid on my house outside. Never seen one or heard of one around here either:8o I'd love to get some L. variolus in my collection, its probably highest on my 'want' list but I never seen one for sale.