Sexing?

[NixHexDude]

I'm curious as to what size the average widow needs to be to be able to tell if it is male or female. If anyone has any pictures of males, it would be helpful or even links to pictures. I googled it with little success. Specifically, I am refering to L. mactans. I'm new to true spiders, but these little guys fascinate me. They were so tiny when I got them. It hasn't been a week and one of them has gotten huge compared to what it was after a cricket and a molt. I have no idea if it's typical, but I swear this thing tripled in size lol.

 

[Widowman10]

I'm curious as to what size the average widow needs to be to be able to tell if it is male or female. If anyone has any pictures of males, it would be helpful or even links to pictures. I googled it with little success. Specifically, I am refering to L. mactans. I'm new to true spiders, but these little guys fascinate me. They were so tiny when I got them. It hasn't been a week and one of them has gotten huge compared to what it was after a cricket and a molt. I have no idea if it's typical, but I swear this thing tripled in size lol.

well, IME, you can EASILY start telling the difference when their abdomen size reaches the size of a BB. the males keep the white/black/red coloration, whereas females start getting darker really really fast. try googling "latrodectus male" or latrodectus male coloration, or anything such as that. usually, scientific names yield better results. so try stuff like that.

 

[Pulk]

also, the pedipalps start getting obvious in males pretty early.