This guy (or gal) is sitting on our porch. There are a couple more, smaller, nearby. Can anyone help identify it. I certainly do not want to kill anything, but if it's a black widow, it (and its relatives nearby) will be destroyed. Anything else is ok. I live in Central California and there are mature black widow around, so anything is possible. We have a 3- and a 5-year-old, and a chihuahua, so I want to be very careful. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Bob
Not sure about your spider, but here is a good reference for widows: http://bugguide.net/node/view/1999
could it ba a banana spider?? we have them in VA, at least I think that's what it is, beautiful black and bright yellow but shaped like that. Black widow is all black right?? I can't see the colors close. Good luck!!!
oooooh!! I just enlarged it, it looks lika an alien! Nothing like what I have in VA! Sorry! Can't help but interested to see what it is!!!
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/662217/
heres a link to the one I see sometimes, if you scroll down, someone posted a pic of a patch of spiderlings, could this be what you have???
http://kaweahoaks.com/html/latrodectus_hesoerus.html
Markings look similar to an immature BW, but the shape isn't consistant. Looks kinda like the male though...
Not certain...maybe someone else has a clue.
If I wasn't sure, I'd stomp on it! If it could be a black widow, I wouldn't want it!!! OH BOY!!!
Your spider is sure a puzzle!
He does have some similarities to this Western Black Widow ... http://bugguide.net/node/view/13101/bgimage
Look at this link. I think this is what you have: http://bugguide.net/node/view/51905
Black widows are so hard to ID as they go through their instars. There are so many variations. Even the adults aren't all alike - even within a species.
It looks like several of us reached the the same conclusion ...
Thanks for all the assistance. This was indeed an immature female black widow -- just one of many I've been keeping my eye on. They've started changing color -- black now with developing hour glass. I've found several more small ones now obvious in their appearance. Although I hate to kill anything, I've got five or six out right now I have to deal with. One's on the kids' toys in the backyard. At least their webs give away their locations during the day, so I can "make a night assault based on reliable and informative intelligence." Sorry, I'm trying to keep my sense of humor, because I REALLY hate these spiders. I just went to take the garbage container to the street and guess what was resting next to the handle?? This is war.......
So that's what they look like. Interesting. I'm with you, ben1832. I hate to kill anything just to kill it. But we all have to protect our own. And it sounds like you have a lot of these girls.
It's a crazy spider time of the year. I have garden spider webs at every entrance to the house and between every tree, I think. They don't do me any harm, but by October I'm tired of putting them out and spitting out webs while I mow . . .
Kathy
Seems to be a spider kind of summer. I too have barn spiders and orb weavers in about every window and door ledge. One of the guys has built a web next to the hose faucet in the back and every morning I get tangled up in it turning on the hose. It feels like the Munsters aound here! :))
I had a couple of black widows this Spring, but haven't seen any since. Sure freaked me out the first time I saw one of them. Couldn't stomp it fast enough and I'm generally a live and let live kinda person.
Juanita
The spider in your picture is a male....note the large pedipalps. Females pedipalps are much smaller.
http://www.ento.csiro.au/ecowatch/Primary/arachnida/pages/black_spider.htm
IM VERY CONSERNED FOR ANYONE HAVEING A BLACKWIDOW NEAR BY I HAD A 5 YR OLD CHIUAUAHA THAT DIED FRIDAY NITE IN MY SONS ARMS I COULDNT FIGURE OUT WHY UNTIL I SEARCHED THE DOG HOUSE SO I CAN FUMAGATE CUZ I KNEW IT WAS SOMETHING SURE ENOUGH OUT COMES A BLACK WIDOW DYING FROM THE MEDICINE I REaD UP ON IT AND YES IT COULD BE THE REASON SHE DIED . PLEASE SAY A PRAYER FOR MY PRECIOUSE CRISTINA AND A PRAYER FOR YOUR DOGS THAT IT NEVER COMES ACROSS A BLACK WIDOW.
A previous poster was correct in his ID as a male widder. They hang in groups (even with a female present). They aren't venomous, however ,they need killin' just as much as the females. I've been bitten by Black widows and the effects are certainly unpleasant. Hazard of my trade. The immature females can ( and usually do) have black and white stripes on the abdomen and the houglass is usually present albeit not as pronounced and usually a yellowish brown rather than the well known red on black of the mature specimen.
