Latrodectus (Theridiidae) Picture Thread

[Widowman10]

amtzzero:

Nope. just a white-ish geometricus aka brown widow.

 

[Geometricus]

Extreme close up of cocoon

This is a SEM of a L geometricus cocoon. Anyone else have SEMs of cocoons or spiders?

 

[Widowman10]

hmmm, there's a SEM of a variolus sac here:
https://sites.google.com/site/widowman10/eggsacs (first picture)

 

[Vfox]

I took some images of the immature L. variolus I found a few days ago. And yes she is sitting on a groundhog jawbone. I happen to find it when I found her and she has seemingly adopted it as a perch.

 

[Petross]

L.hesperus is really nice one

 

[Leeway337]

I live in Central California and the only widow we have is L Hesperus. All the ones I find look a lot different from the ones in these pics. I have never seen a Hesperus without a full hourglass. Also the markings that are on the backs of these I have never seen on a Hesperus at any stage.

The ones in these pics I think is Variolus or Mactans.

didn't realize this was so old and had 40+ pages. This was in reference to the first set of pics starting the thread. oh well...

 

[Widowman10]

many hesperus will have a partial or separated hourglass. heck, some will even have little or no hourglass at all!

juvenile hesperus will also very oftentimes exhibit strong dorsal markings and coloration. hesperus markings (patterns) look a bit different than variolus.

 

[buthus]

old image, but this one was collected south of los angeles. ...a distant speck of red, but pretty much no glass at all...

a couple hesp from the great state of Texas ...adults but retaining dorsal markings...

...dead...but still so pretty...

 

[aSpiderificGirl]

Beautiful Western Widows you've got there!

 

[khil]

Does anyone know where there are black widows near the bay area? I have a couple females I've had for over a year and want to try to find a mate.

 

[Anonymity82]

Went there once, didn't look around much. I need to look again.

This is from the 9th:

This is from today:

I know this old but LOOK AT ALL THOSE RED BABIES! They're so awesome looking!

 

[Anonymity82]

Aint she a beaut!

View attachment 113380

 

[buthus]

went to a 'bug' peoples gathering with some spiders to 'demo' a few years ago...and decided to pull out one of of the reds i had and talk about its niche and whatnot while it crawled around my hand/arm. They mostly never bite...so what the hell ...pretty as fck and some attention grabbing showmanship. eh!?? Thing suddenly decided to let go of all, ball up and drop. I was on my knees...so it only probably dropped a few ft at best ...died a couple hrs later. Most likely from internal injury in abdomen.
FUNNY.. cause i joked that I could have killed her from a little thump like that ..put her back in her cup ...thinkn ...hmmm ...i wonder if i f'up?!
Careful ...they be fragile

 

[Ciphor]

Its a freak thing but happens. I drop my true spiders all the time from standing distance (so about 3-5 foot fall) and I've never seen a spider die due to it. A friend of mine on the other hand, has her spiders die all the time from drops while handling. Weird stuff!

 

[antinous]

Aint she a beaut!

View attachment 113380

Love the colors on her! Are they hard to keep?

 

[Tarantula155]

Old ones I used to have when I lived in Colorado.

 

[Anonymity82]

Love the colors on her! Are they hard to keep?

Not at all. I keep them just like I keep my others. Mostly dry and well fed. Weekly misting. If their abdomens look plump, shiny and healthy I think they're doing good. I bought two of these for 10 bucks each! Great deal, they usually go for like 30+ bucks, from this guy on another forum. A friend of mine found the guy. I have to look up in my charts but I think only one of them molted once. It's been long enough so I'm pretty sure the other one isn't going to molt and is an adult.

I keep them in mini KKs like my other widows. They eventually build the same exact type of webs. The reds tend to be a little less aggressive when feeding than the mactans are.

 

[Salticstance]

Red widow in natural habitat

This is a picture that I took ten years ago, but I thought it was worth sharing again. It's a red widow with her eggsac in a scrub oak habitat.

 

[menavodi]

That is a great picture!

 

[pannaking22]

Beautiful! These widows look great! I'm going to have wander a couple hours south and see if I can get a few this year