New to the collection - Black Widow (pic)

Arachniphile

Arachnosquire
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One of my clients collected this spider for me not far from Bend, Oregon this last week. I find this location puzzeling because Bend is at the foot of Mt Bachelor. It is very cold there due to the elevation an there is usually no shortage of snow. I would have thought that the cold would be too much for this spider to survive, apperently not.



 

Venom

Arachnoprince
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Black widows are very hardy. There is also a population of black widows in Denver Colorado !
 

Wade

Arachnoking
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Was it found in the open or under a log (or otherwise sheltered)? As long as they can get away from the most harsh weather extremes, they can usually overwinter quite well.

I assume it's probably L. heperus, the western black widow.

Wade
 

Arachniphile

Arachnosquire
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Here is a little better picture of her. I am going to see the person that caught her on Monday and I intend to find out more about where it was...

Click here for a larger image.


 

Alex S.

Arachnolord
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Latrodectus

Healthy Latrodectus specimens can live up to around 3 years.

Alex S.
 

Vys

Arachnoprince
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Beautiful photos!
Just out of curiosity, did anyone ever prove that the Redback of Australia is closely related to the Black Widow of northern America and Europe, because they share the same origin ?
 

Kugellager

ArachnoJester of the Ancient Ones
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Nice pics Arachniphile. Looks like an L.hesperus.

You can see one of mine here.

http://www.arachnopets.com/arachnoboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4898

Venom,

They are all over the place here in the Denver area; but remember Denver is actually on the edge of plains and quite arid. There are lots of places where they can hunker down onder rocks which would be warmer during the day. We get a lot of sun here. They infest peoples sheds and crawl spaces. I have found them very easy to take care of and to produce egg sacs if they have been mated.

John
];')
 

Arachniphile

Arachnosquire
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I was wondering what sp she was. I didn't know the hour glass markings made a difference... Thanks John...

After talking with the guy that caught it and asking a bunch of questions, it appears that they had recieved a rather large, used canvas tent from southern CA this past summer by way of "Relative Delivery". It came in several boxes complete with used stakes in a 5 gallon bucket. It is likely that is where this spider came from.
 

Kugellager

ArachnoJester of the Ancient Ones
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The hourglass marking on the ventral surface of the abdomen is characteristically seperated into two triangles in the Western Black Widow (Latrodectus hesperus). This is generally true for the Northern Black Widow (L variolas) too. The Southern Black Widow (L.mactans) generally has the hourglass shape connected.

Some good pics of each here: http://members.aol.com/TcharacteristiclyheWyvernsLair/WidowSpiders/#B

Here is an excellent site for information on the various Widow species:
http://www.arachnology.org/Arachnology/Pages/Latrodectus.html

John
];')
 

Stormcrow

Arachnoknight
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Kugellager said:
The hourglass marking on the ventral surface of the abdomen is characteristically seperated into two triangles in the Western Black Widow (Latrodectus hesperus). This is generally true for the Northern Black Widow (L variolas) too. The Southern Black Widow (L.mactans) generally has the hourglass shape connected.
This is very untrue, L.hesperus red ventral marking can be two touching triangles. But in actuality, the triangles are usually formed into an hourglass too. Unless Yuma, Az; Bard, Anaheim, Mira Loma, Perris, Moreno Valley, Riverside, Orange County, Fontana, San Bernidino, San Diego, have been overrun by hybrid mactans/hesperus species. Seriously doubt that. I think the sources that speak of the differences in mactans and hesperus red ventral markings is a tremendous piece of misinformation. It has no clout amongst the true arachnological circles, in fact I have never found such misinformation on any professional site save hobospider.org (which is a great site BTW!). Similar to the old addage, scorpions will eat themselves to death.
 
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