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Spider Photos - Black Widow

BLACK WIDOW

Black Widow spiders inhabit most of the warmer regions of the world to a latitude of about 45 degrees N. and S. They occur throughout all four deserts of the American Southwest. Related Species Widow spiders (Genus Latrodectus) are the best known and largest of the Cobweb Weavers (Family Therididae). All widows are venomous, though not all can cause injury to humans. Black Widows comprise about six species and inhabit most of the warmer regions of the world to a latitude of about 45 degrees N. The female black widow spider, though it is the most venomous spider in North America, seldom causes death as it injects a very small amount of poison when it bites. Reports indicate human mortality at well less than 1% from black widow spider bites. Anyone bitten by a black widow spider should seek medical care. Black widow spiders are common around wood piles, and are frequently encountered when homeowners carry firewood into the house. They are also found under eaves, in boxes, outdoor toilets, meter boxes, and other unbothered places. Black widows have a distinctive round shiny black abdomen with red markings usually under its abdomen. They are a small spider with thin legs and the female's abdomen becomes larger just before laying her egg sac. Males are considerably smaller and usually not as dangerous as the female due to their size.

Reply: This is a black widow, the US version of the redback - glen

2 December, 2009:
I took pictures the best I could. The spider is underneath the rim of a flower pot. Please let me know if this is a Red back & if so, are they supposed to be in Alabama?

2 December, 2009:
Hello Glen,here are some Black Widow pictures taken around my parents house in Southern California.Enjoy.............. MC

Click for a larger view

Reply: This is a black widow so I'd be careful around it - glen

11 October, 2009:
Hey glen I found this spider outside our slider by our dog toys in Washington state. Just want to see if it is a black widow or not and should i be concerned for our pets?

10 October, 2009:
found this spider on a flower pot. I'm thinking it’s a juvenile black widow but not sure. Can you tell me what it is. Thanks, Bill Brady

28 August, 2009:
These photos were taken in Maryland. We took the spider from her web, with the stick, and placed her in the sunlight for the photos. We then placed her back near her web. From other photos, on your website, I assume she is a female black widow. We forgot to examine her underbelly for the hourglass.

28 August, 2009:
Hey I thought you might enjoy these. I ran across your website and I think it's pretty awesome. I have some good ones of a catface somewhere. I'll send them when I find them.  

Reply: Yes they quite often eat prey a lot larger than they are - glen
6 August, 2009:
Hi, took this picture yesterday of a black widow eating a lizard. This is in Albuquerque, NM. Thought it was rather strange, wondering if you'd ever heard of a black widow eating a lizard? Feel free to use the picture for whatever!! Natalie

3 August, 2009:
Hey guys. Can you help with this spider? Thanks Bob

29 June, 2009:
I attached a picture of the black widow we have. She is lovely. I still haven't been able to photograph the one I thought was a brown widow (similar pic in the link I sent.) I think I have a nice spot scouted out for the black one and her eggs. I thought about the black box in the ground where the water meter is (since I've seen several in the one @ my mom's house,) but the water co. just worked on it and it seems really unstable. Yeah, I used to have some high anxiety regarding spiders, but they don't bother me anymore (I actually really like the tiny ones I find in my house) unless they're big and hairy or from AUSTRALIA (I watch a lot of documentaries on venomous animals.) I teach school, too...4th grade in Navarre, FL. Hopefully you didn't catch my misspelling in the first note I sent. Thanks again for your help and your site is great! Krista

Reply: It looks like a black widow - glen

10 May, 2009:
Hello, I am trying to find someone that can identify this spider I came across today. I live in central North Carolina and found this specimen among a pile of scrap steel. I immediately thought it to be a male widow but don't know and can't find a picture. Thanks you for your time, Wayne

Reply: It certainly looks like the black widow - glen

14 April, 2009:
I discovered this spider crawling up my leg yesterday. I thought it looked different, so I decided to take a picture of it. And now I wonder WHAT was crawling up my leg. Thanks, Amy, Birmingham, Alabama

Reply: It looks like the black widow has moulted and been unable to get away from its old skin and died like that.
17 January, 2009:
Hi, I came upon your spiderzrule website and was hoping you could help, in either answering a question or posting my question/photographs so that I could find the answer from others that might know? We recently moved to a suburb in Southern San Diego (about 10 miles from Mexico in an area that 30 years ago was all mountains and canyons and undeveloped much). I've seen two black widows in our back yard, which was easily identifiable of course with the hourglass on the abdomen.  I once saw this type of spider "hooked" together (by the legs) of a black widow spider- I could not tell if they had shed their skin?? or if they had injected each other and were both dead?? ..it was weird.  If you decide to post this to the website can you let me know so I can check back on responses you get?? thanks!! Jennifer

30 December, 2008:
Photos I thought you'd like... Feel free to use this care sheet for black widows for yourself, or to distribute! Click here for Stefan's Care Sheet. (1.09Mb pdf)
Stefan

25 October, 2008:
Hello, We keep finding widow spiders in our home. I cannot tell if they are immature black widows or if they are brown widows and no one seems to be able to answer the question for me. I have never seen an egg sac which I know would be very helpful in telling which they are. Is there any other way to tell the difference? I have attached a photo of a small one, but I am also finding ones that are up to an inch to an inch and a half (including legs) - that are brown and yellow in color, with their hourglass being cream colored to yellow. At this size wouldn't a black widow be changing color already or not? I cannot seem to find anything that talks about how large the black widow is when it begins to change color and look more "typical." I have a newborn and am very paranoid over this. We have already had our home chemically treated for spiders which has done nothing to help the problem. Thanks so much. Robyn

27 September, 2008:
Glen, Here is another juvenile black widow photo for your site. Caught in Rogers Arkansas USA Craig

28 August,  2008:
Hi..I live in Maryland..Denton...on the Eastren Shore. I found this GAL?// in my bucket today..is she a Black widow? And what should I do with her? She looks like she's ready to have babys...and I don't kill any thing...but we have a few small children around here...should I take her away and let her go? Thanks , Maria
Let me know if the pic's are o.k.

Reply: Looks more like a juvenile female to me.
6 October, 2007:
Hi Glen, I am hoping you can tell if the attached pictures are a male or female black widow. It just appeared in the closet today and has my entire family in an uproar about staying in the house.  The spider was in its web between two shoes. Any help you can offer would be great. Thanks, Scott Suwanee, GA USA (Atlanta)

3 September, 2007:
 

3 September, 2007:
Hey Glen! I love your site!! This is a black widow I found outside my folks house in Angleton, Texas (South of Houston). She was already dead from pestaside probably, but not before having plenty of babies. I have a ton out in the shed but most are dying out because of weather. Hope you can use the pics! Amber Sirmans

Click for a larger view

Reply: This is unusual as the egg sac is not a black widow's egg sac but that of a brown widow because it has those spikes on it.
 

3 September, 2006:
Hey' Glen, I hadn't planned on sending in any black widow photos, seeing as you already have so many good ones posted. But these came out pretty good and include a male. Found these under a patio table and transferred them to a ten gal aquarium for picture taking. Interesting note; they had been in the tank for less than ten minutes when, on a whim, I caught a moth [it was night and there were many about] and offered it to the female. It instantly started wrapping it in web and was shortly feeding on it, odd that...Anyway,use them if you like. Regards, Roy

27 August, 2006:
Glen, I found this spider living by my pool filter. I thought it might be a black widow, however, it does not have the traditional red hourglass shape. Here is a photo, can you identify this spider? Rich , New Jersey

27 August, 2006:
I have many of these in my yard. They share the web with the obvious adult mature females, although they are out in the daylight. They hang upside down in the
web. I only see the black females after dark. Are these much smaller ones males or imature females?
Candy
Phoenix AZ

13 August, 2006:
Glen, Thought I would share a couple of photos I have taken over the last few days where I live in West Central Georgia, USA. Your site has been so helpful in identifying some of the spiders I have encountered recently. Attached are photos I took of a Brown Widow, Black Widow, and a Green Lynx. I hope you can use them. - Jason

3 July, 2006:
Black Widow with Egg-Rich Swanner

Click for a larger view.

28 June, 2006:

You can use it for your site if you would like

Best Regards,
Todd Avery

Click for a larger view.

1 June, 2006:
From today Black Widow takes Bee-Rich Swanner

Click for a larger view.

1 February, 2006:
Glen- Ursula, our pet Black Widow had babies. They are about two days old.
Here are photos next to an American dime.
Lee

18 December, 2005:
Took these about 10 minutes ago- caught her here in our outdoor shed in
San Diego, CA.

//Todd

7 December, 2005:.
I also found this northern black widow which i thought  was cool. feel free to use them on your web page if you feel like it. I love
spiders can you tell?lol ..

21 November, 2005:
Glen can you use any of these Black Widow shots? I tried to get more full spider only pics.-Rich

13 November, 2005:
cool site! I have a female black widow living in my bathroom. I'd like to capture her & release her somewhere, & would like suggestions on how best to accomplish this. meanwhile, what can I feed her? no flies around & I'm keeping that door shut to make sure my cats don't think she'd like to play...

11 November, 2005:
Another Reply: With regards to the response by Jim to the spider on September 15, 2005, I thought I'd send a few pictures of the black widow I found without the hourglass marking on the underside. I don't know if you can use this at all, but if so, I'm glad to share it. Elaine

Some more info: Your site is certainly informative and interesting, although the weird stuff I come across now and then, I can never seem to find, seems there are tons of spiders here in Ohio that haven't been classified yet, oh well. Any rate, there was one thing I noticed you posted and I think you should be aware of it, less someone thinks the pretty shiny large black spider crawling out of their newspaper is harmless because it doesn't have a red hourglass. The northern black widow found in my area can have no discernible red mark or marks on the underside at all. I have found a couple in my 1920s home, one on my porch, in newspapers I brought in to start fire and the other outside in an old camper, I am vary familiar with widows and am not a novice, I have caught many in Florida while visiting there (they did have an hourglass of course) and I have since learned they can have a slight yellowish mark also, but have never seen this first hand. This is in reply to this you posted, again, nice site, thanks, Jim

 Reply: This looks like a Black Widow, probably Latrodectus mactans. I cannot be sure without seeing the red hourglass shape found on the underbelly, but Black Widow bites are medically significant, so be careful.
Brian Post

15 September, 2005:
Hi I was just wondering if you know what kind of spider this is. I found it crawling up my wall one morning. Thank you.
Brooke

21 September, 2005:
Here’s a couple more widow pics. Also, forwarded a picture of a large, unknown spider. Possibly Carolina wolf? Quite large – would estimate 4” or more legspan. Dave B, San Antonio, Texas

12 September, 2005:
Here's some great photos from Rich Swanner. All photos are copyright to their owners and my not be reproduced without permission. Click for a larger view.

14 August, 2005:
i am also raising a reproducing female Black Widow, she had one of her three egg sacs open today somewhere between 200 to 350
babies. i also have numerous photos of her, egg sacs, sac building, egg laying, and the kids playing. respectfully yours,
badair

19 July, 2005:
Just thought you may want these “beauties”for your website (which is great by the way).
  House under construction in what WAS country –so, not unexpected.  San Antonio, Texas
Appears to be Black Widows – no questionthat the pair is a male and female.  The single one is unusual – its webis on the porch over 10’ high.  I’ll try to get better photos – didn’twant to disturb to get the hourglass – but it is there (didn’t havethe camera at the time).    Thanks!!!!  Dave Brabec

15 May, 2005:
My kids found a spider outside and it was in our chair. I thought it was a black widow it had the red hour glass on its belly and on its back there were yellow markings. I can not seem to find it on the internet anywhere to learn more about it. I did take pictures of it and I will attach it to the email.  Hope you can help me out some.  (To me they look a little like a brown widow.) Thank you, Sherri Lutz from southern  California

23 October, 2004:
Found this Widow in my garage, next morning, a scorpion decided to join the party. Both were dead so I’m guessing they didn’t get along well. (Scorpion is still dangling in web)

15 October, 2004:
I'm sending you my best spider pics from the last couple months. Thought you might like to have them for your image library, maybe display a couple in the "known" spider pages. I'm getting better at capturing close-ups. One of these days I'll get a real good shot of that Jumper. Until then... Keep up the good work, I love your site! Cheers, Terry Lucas, Lakewood, Ca.
Click photo for some lovely close ups. Bottom 2 photos are are brown widows.

14 October, 2004:  
My name is Irish Jordan. I found this spider in my back yard.. thought I would send you a pic..  I think it is a black widow..
Thanks.

11 October, 2004:  
Hi there, I wonder if you can help. Whilst on a recent holiday to Sarawak Borneo we came across a lot of these spiders. They varied in size from approximately 1 inch to 2inches.  I have tried to look it up in various guide books but not yet identified it, the nearest I get is a Black widow, But this has whitish stripes as you can see. I thank you in anticipation for any help give. Kind Regards, Steve. P.S. please us photo freely.

1 September, 2004:
Hi Glen,
I ran across this site while trying to identify an infestation of spiders at my house. It appears to be a juvenile black widow with the hourglass but we still haven’t found any black ones. We’ve found about a dozen of these and few variations of this but I was hoping to confirm if this is a black or not? Also do you have any ideas on the best way to get rid of this type of infestation?
Thanks so much,
Bill, San Diego

26 August, 2004:
Glen,
I have a few photos of what I thought was a red back but (though slightly  disappointed) found that this is a common coloration of black widows in  the United States. Regardless a lot of work went into photographing the  markings so they should go somewhere! Images can be taken from  http://incertaesedis.com (rather than email them to you and fill your
mail box).
Ethan Marsh
Orem, UT

22 August, 2004: Glenn- About 6-7 weeks ago my pop was- cleaning our back patio and found a brownish spider w/interesting markings that we had never seen before. So we got on the internet and found your web site w/the awesome photos. We determined
that our brownish spider was either a male black widow or a young female black widow. We decided to feed it and watch it for a while. Pop put the spider in a small jar & fed it flies he caught. About 2 weeks later our brown spider shed its skin and was definitely a small female black widow. We were surprised to see that it shed its skin and couldn't find anything/photos on the internet about spiders shedding their skin. So have
kept her and fed her in her new "skippy peanut butter jar - spider condo". And she has shed her skin again (bigger skin in small jar). We've decided to send you photos of the original small jar w/her 2 skin
remains/sheddings/moltings?, plus view of the "skippy peanut butter condo"
and then a close up of her red markings.
-Sabrina & Pete
Sacramento CA Aug 2004

21 August, 2004:
Found this young black widow on one of my child's toy cars left in my yard. It was actually under the steering wheel. If my 2 year old daughter hadn't complained about the web getting all over her, I would have never looked.
Craig Richardson
Rogers Arkansas

17 October, 2003:
Hello! I was searching on the internet to see what kind of spider this was that my husband found when I came across your site. I was wondering if you could tell me if this is a redback black widow? It was under our dogs water dish. Thanks!
Krista

Reply: Yes it is a black widow,
glen

17 October, 2003:
Hi,
This is my first time at this site and its great. I live in Lakewood California and have seen so many different kinds of spiders in my backyard. But mostly black widows. lots of black widows. So many that I cant help feel that they high tension power lines that are in this field behind my backyard must be mutating the spiders with radiation from the power lines But on a serious note recently my daughter took this photo in our backyard, and I am unable to identify it. It looks similar to the black widow but no hour glass was apparent. Maybe you can tell me what it is. Its shown in a small web at the bass of a tire. It was pretty big. And in one of the photos there appears to be two thin white lines at the front of the spider. Could that be eyes?
Thanks , Victor

8 August, 2003:
Glen,
About two weeks after she molted - she had her stripes and other marks just fade away leaving her with two red marks- the one hourglass on the bottom and a red spot her back- She did not do as the books and a couple of experts said it would disappear after a molt- two weeks after a molt. She now lives at a local chemical store and has a room-mate (in another container). Did not have the heart to kill her after all we learned about her even
though my daughter is allergic to spiders bites!
Laurie

13 July, 2003:
Hi- Thanks for the reply- I believe that she is Latrodectus hasselti. She molted and no change in her pattern on her back or bottom- hourglass is not broken, red outlined by white - one circle red with white outline.
The link to this spider is 98% match to her http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/theridiidae/Theridiidae.html
top photo curled up or open
We have bought crickets to feed her she sure enjoys her bug slurpie. She is fatter in the back end I took photos yesterday did not turn out. She is now bigger than a quarter with her legs extended- which comes darn close to being full grown- which if she was just a fancy black widow (southern) she would of lost some of her markings when she molted. We will work on a better picture today. I am not opposed to placing her in alcohol and shipping her away but this will not help to developed anti-toxin. If she arrived in August last year-you can do the math I have killed three other that were small one very very young ones-. The redback # 4 image (FROM THE WEB NOT OUR PHOTO) has the markings the closet to ours since she has had a good meal her back end is not black but a reddish brown black. Where her legs appear black black by comparison.
My pest control guy has been doing this over 20 years and has see all species of widows he has never seen one like this. He has seen the fancy baby spiders but the lines are usually faint (red lines) and at this size he has never seen it with red like this. He has seen they with gray hourglass and partial hourglasses, also the brown versions.
Just like with the West Nile Virus- I told people that would have to contend with it coming to Texas- Now three years after I wrote letters it is here. My city does not spray for mosquitoes- City of Austin does. The City of Round Rock does not and the mosquitoes (where we live) are the size of small birds- (ya- you know that all the bugs are bigger in Texas) (Texas Humor). When the Mosquitoes attack all day worse during day light than at night you know you have a problem.
Again Thanks,
Laurie

Hi There,
Someone sent me your spider page... very cool. I thought you'd like my picture of my wee little black widow in my garden. She was about 4 inches long when this was taken.

Best wishes
Alley

7 April, 2001:
"We wanted you to know we found your site when trying to find information on the Red Back Spider, which we see is common to Australia. We found a small male Red Back on the floor mat just inside our back door. We live in southern Louisiana, USA in a heavily wooded area near a bayou, and see all types of creatures here, but this is our first Red Back. I hear the Red Back is also considered to be a Widow variety spider. Enclosed is a photo of our guest in a glass jar. - Steve Lemoine"