Black Widow ?? Red Dots ??

[Go ask Alice]

I'm seeing red dots here - does anyone know if this a normal Black Widow? Do they also have the hour glass ??

[cacoseraph]

CA widows are highly variable in adult coloration

i found an almost pure black adult female. i actually thought it was pure black until my buddy got it into his pretty nice little photo setup.

http://scabies.myfreeforum.org/sutra1259.php#1259

pictures # 26, 27, 28 on that post


i have seen adult females that have all manner of dots and lines in them.


(ps i can't see most pics at work, and can't see this pic)

[Go ask Alice]

The picture is a birds-eye-view and she has round dots along the middle of her 'back' ...

I'm getting a tattoo of a black widow - and I want it to be accurate. We saw the dots and - well I'm going to get two now - one with the hour glass and I love the dots ..

thank you for responding

[Go ask Alice]

Originally Posted by cacoseraph

CA widows are highly variable in adult coloration

i found an almost pure black adult female. i actually thought it was pure black until my buddy got it into his pretty nice little photo setup.

http://scabies.myfreeforum.org/sutra1259.php#1259

pictures # 26, 27, 28 on that post


i have seen adult females that have all manner of dots and lines in them.


(ps i can't see most pics at work, and can't see this pic)

When you say CA widows - are you talking about California ??

[NBond1986]

Originally Posted by Go ask Alice

When you say CA widows - are you talking about California ??

Yeah, he is.

I personally have never seen a L. hesperus (common widow in CA) with those abdominal markings.

That looks more like a Latrodectus mactans, but I'm no widow expert.

[cacoseraph]

supposedly ca has mactans also, but i have never really been convinced


and i swear to go... someone is going to get punched if i hear another species "key" that involves coloration. considering i have seen every "species variation" in the same field i consider it well, crap

[What]

That looks to be Latrodectus variolus. Or the Northern Widow.

Do you know where the picture was originally taken?

@Caco - I have never heard of mactans ranging into California and hesperus is found all the way west to Texas...

[cacoseraph]

what

it is googlable... but like i said i have never been convinced.



also, heh, i assumed the pic was of a ca widow (not that i can see it anyways...) since the OP is in CA. my very bad.

[Jenny]

The hourglass would have been on the underside of it's abdomen Alice, the red dots are normal for the top of the ab.

[cacoseraph]

considering i read somewhere that GAA is getting tatted today/rightnow/justhappened this is probably not as useful of a post as it could be


but i was confused until, er, just now. i thought you had posted a pic you took yourself of a spider from your house or whatever that you wanted id'ed. i somehow managed to miss your post that said it was for a tat until just now

"widow" is a name for certain species of spiders in the genus Latrodectus (which means sneaky biter )

traditionally people in north america call "their" Latro species widows. in africa their latro spp have all kinds of other names like katipo or button spider. in australia their most common latro species has red on the back (not sure about the hourglass... i think they have it) and is known as a... redback spider

not all latros are black in color, btw. africa gave us brown widows. literally. i find brown widows all over in SoCA. florida gave us red widows, which have perhaps the smallest natural domain of any species... palmetto groves and a possibly a few outlying areas from palmetto groves. israel gave us white widows (who are more of a cream color).


if you are looking for sick widow designs check out

Latrodectus sp. "laos" aka Hellfire Widows

and i personally think the brown widows (L. geometricus "world measure/spanning") are pretty darn sinister looking