Some pics of the Latrodectus variolus I caught

[WithCerberus]

the distortion at the bottom of this one is from a bend in the enclosure. The following two were taken before capture. I took the eggsac too. I'm going to give raising them a go. Let me tell you, my girlfriend is just too excited for words

and just for fun here is a sling from my Steatoda grossa eggsac

 

[Kugellager]

Very nice pics...the colors and the contrats came out very nice and sharp.

I like the red marking on the dorsal surface of the abdomen...L.hesperus from NM get theses as well...the ones I collect here do not though...regional variations I suppose.

John
];')

 

[alex]

Great pics! Do you have any pic of the hole enclosure?

 

[Bothrops]

Very nice widow. One question... how do u do for the little spiderlings don´t escape through the holes of the terrarium?
I have listened that I must put a "sock of lycra" above, and it leaves spiders them are fed to each other, until when they have a size the sufficiently great thing like being able to separate them one by one, is this right?

Thanks,
Bothrops

P.D: Sorry for my very very bad english, I hope that you have understood me.

 

[alex]

That's right.

 

[Bothrops]

Ok! Thank you for answer me

 

[WithCerberus]

I will take a pic of the enclosure later tonight and post it. For the spiderlings I use spice jars with cotton balls stuffed in the opening at the top. Ive never used the lycra sock before but it sounds like a good idea too.

Bobby

 

[Nikos]

Here are a couple of photos of l.variolus in their, quite minimal , enclosures.

 

[JPD]

Very nice widow. One question... how do u do for the little spiderlings don´t escape through the holes of the terrarium?

You can actually put spiderlings in a plastic pill vial...the type with the snap on cap with no air holes and they do fine. Then, as mentioned, once their numbers start to dwindle, you can seperate them.
If you do dare to seperate early, make sure that you have the container over a black surface. I use the top of a large tupperware tote. The babies are small and quick so keep a constant watch on them!
Good luck

 

[El Johano]

Does anyone know when the red spots on the abdomen appear? I have several subadult L. variolus but there are no spots yet, I guess they have about 3-4 moults until they reach adulthood.

 

[Nikos]

after the 4th moult I think

 

[El Johano]

after the 4th moult I think

Hmmm, then mine should have got the markings by now, stange....

I was referring to the red spots on the dorsal part of the abdomen, not the incomplete hourglass ventrally, just so that we're talking about the same spots

 

[Nikos]

i might have counted the moults wrong....but it is near the 4th

 

[El Johano]

Well mine have moulted about 5 or 6 times now.... And I have them from 2 different sources so I don't think they are mislabelled...

 

[Bothrops]

JDP, thank you for the info, it really helped me

 

[El Johano]

Does anyone know if all L. variolus have red spots on the dorsal part of the abdomen?

 

[Stormcrow]

Bearing in mind L.variolis being one of the common Widow species I have never cared for, I hear the coloration and markings vary like any other Latrodectus species. You have specimens with such markings present or absent.