Reptile & Amphibian Forums

had my camera this morning!soory for bad focus

I'd say a black widow [obviously, but they are usally in very dark places, almoset never seen out in broad daylight like that. JB

he was under some fiberglas, I flipped him.

>>had my camera this morning!soory for bad focus
>>

It's a southern widow (Latrodectus mactans). They do transverse their webs during the daytime to catch food if it should happen to become trapped in the sticky strands and they have not already eaten recently. I often drop moth caterpillars into webs to try and draw the spider out of its house to take photos of them. Below is a photo of a Northern Widow (Latrodectus variolus) I got a shot of.

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PHWyvern

the red hour glass is on the top-side not the belly or am i mistaken do the marking belong on the belly or the back?

>>the red hour glass is on the top-side not the belly or am i mistaken do the marking belong on the belly or the back?

Immature widows will have red markings on the top side in various degrees as well as the standard hourglass marking on the belly. Your photo however is actually a belly shot of a female widow and not a top-side shot. I can tell from the leg positions.

Female widows tend to sit or move in their webs belly up because they are so bottom heavy. They have a difficult time moving their body weight in a top-side position on their slender legs. About the only way to get a natural shot of a female widow from the top side is to have the web above your head. The other way is to pull the spider off it's web and set it on the ground, but then it's not a natural shot at that point lol.

I believe you stated in another post that your are in Florida and that tells me that what you have is a southern and not a western widow so a detailed shot of the hourglass would not be needed to figure out which it would be (as would be the case where their ranges overlap). Northerns are typically the easiest to ID because they don't have a complete hourglass.. instead they have a broken hourglass (two triangles pointed at each other not connected).

Your photo is of a female as males do not have that fat rounded abdomen. Males really don't look much like widows at all when fully mature..elongated abdomens often shriveled up lol. Once they hit full maturity they stop eating and just go around looking for females until they finally starve to death. Below is a top-side and a belly shot of a male northern not quite fully mature (still showing juvenile white & red racing stripe markings) with a plump abdomen and not a shriveled one. Males are easier to photograph in a natural top side position as their weight is more evenly distributed and they weigh much less than a female so it's easier for them to walk around in a topside position.

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PHWyvern

thanks it possible the spider was upside down ,but i really thought the marking was on his/her back. but i was lifting with one hand and camera in other!Chris