spider identification, may be a black widow

hello

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 28, 2011
Messages
2
Hey guys. I saw a few spiders in my house that look kind of like a black widow and I wanted to get some ideas on some other spiders that look like my description. Unfortunately right now I don't have a picture because I didn't have a camera and they got away, but I'll try to describe what they look like. I saw 2 very tiny ones. Tiny as in, you can barely even see it. The other one was a little bigger, much smaller than a penny but big enough to see it.

EDIT: I got a closer look, I don't believe it's a black widow. It has 3 white dots on each side of it's body. 2 dots on the top on each side, and a third one that leads more to towards the back (almost looks like eyes when looking at it from the back). Then in the middle of it's back it looks like a bunch of connected arrows facing forward. Here is my quick Photoshop rendition: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/535/spiderx.png/

The overall shape of it's body is like a normal black widow:

http://images.nationalgeographic.co...8q3Ceqq7Se8KMOMkeg&01RI=524C5F382172033&01NA=

It has those crab-like legs and bulbous body. I could not see any red on it, but it's body had a white design on it's back. The design on it's back looked very closely to this:

http://www.cirrusimage.com/Lynette/black_widow_001.jpg

White dots, did not see any red but the spider is small and it's hard to tell. It's body (the back of the spider) looked like it was black, but when I shined a flashlight on it, the color was a bit brown.

The front of the spider where it's eyes are (I don't know the anatomy of a spider but I guess this is what you would call it's face :p), looked liked this:

http://www.johnkoerner.org/Spiders/redwidow.jpg

but more brown than red (has that sort of "transparent" look like in the picture).

Can you guys give some examples of spiders that would have all those features? All the pictures I posted are indeed black widows, so that would seem like the conclusion, but I'm sure there are some other spiders with very similar looks and that's what I'm hoping for. I live in Ohio so I know it's possible. I'll try to get a pic up if my information is not enough. Thanks!
 
Last edited:

Widowman10

Arachno WIDOW
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
4,209
could it have been a Steatoda triangulosa? they do range up into ohio.
 

Shrike

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
1,598
I was thinking Steatoda as well, although I'm not familiar with their range. A picture would obviously be better but the OPs rendering actually pointed in the right direction (hopefully).
 

John Apple

Just a guy
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 26, 2003
Messages
1,147
google steatoda triangulosa....probably what you have ....young are somewhat red
 

hello

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 28, 2011
Messages
2
Hey guys, the Steatoda Triangulosa is indeed the ones showing up around my house, thanks!!
 
Top