Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well i'll start by describing her as BLACK as BLACK can be except for the very small red diamondshaped markings on the back end of the top of the abdomen , on the underside there were two red triangles that didnt quite meet to make the hourglass.
As far as i could tell from looking at pictures of black widows the body was the same shape, and the size slightly larger than a quarter. I found her between the ground and a piece of old wood.
Now goegraphical information, I live in southern NJ and from what i have read black widows are from more southern parts of the united states but
i have always heard that they are common here too. sorry i can not show a picture i let her go about a week ago. One more thing. her silk was VERY strong which may point to a widow spider from what i read their silk is among the strongest in the spider world.

Yes that is definitely a widow spider. However you should know that what usually referred to as "the black widow" is actually 3 different spiders in the widow FAMILY. There are many species of widows worldwide, not just here in the states, and even here we have 5 different types - the red widow, the brown widow ( an introduced species ), and the three "black widows". All are venomous, but there are differences between them. The northern widow ( Latrodectus variolus ), which is what you have, is due to it's temperament, a little less likely to bite a human defensively, and can tolerate a colder climate than the southern black widow ( Latrodectus mactans ). This webpage has a guide on how to distinguish among the three black widows.

http://kaston.transy.edu/widow.html

The image in the center, with the divided hourglass, is the widow you have. Here are some websites with info / pictures on the different types and distributions of widow spiders in the USA:

www.hobospider.org

http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/ento/venomousspiders.htm