CLOSED: Black widow spider or NOT? (sorry no pic)

J_D_W Puyallup, WA Sep 27, 2009

well i found a pretty big spider in an empty box in my garage today. It looks alot like the famous black widow spider, but im pretty sure that theyre not found in my area of the northwest. i will try to post a picture of it tomorow :)
Description:
basically it has all the characteristics of a black widow, but without the red hourglass...??
-The abdomen is the size (maybe 1cm?) and shape of a pea, it also has some very dark brown markings that show when in bright light.
-the head area is much smaller then the abdomen is.
and the legs are black, long, and thin

By the way i'did some searching on google, and i couldnt find an answer as to what exact breed of spider this is.

thanks :D

This message was edited Sep 26, 2009 7:50 PM

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suunto Sinks Grove, WV Sep 27, 2009

The western black widow (Latrodectus hesperus) can occur in your area, but these spiders do have the traditional 'hourglass' marking on the underside of the abdomen. What you may have is a spider in the same family (Theridiidae), but in the genus Steatoda - their body shape is very similar to that of widow spiders, and some are known as 'false black widow spiders.' See http://tinyurl.com/n9o9tf for an example. Although not dangerous, their bite can be very painful, as I can personally attest.

Post #7109119

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J_D_W Puyallup, WA Sep 27, 2009

thanks for the help suunto :)

Post #7109300

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