At first I figured it was just a black widow, see those every so often around here. But then I noticed there was no hourglass, just a red strip with a white outline and white spots. I can't seem to find anything on Google. Only thing that comes close is the RedBack spider, which makes no sense since I am in Washington State.
Anyone have any ideas?
There are some pics of widow spiders here that are awful close:
http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/cobweb_spiders_theridiidae
There's a pic of a widow spider on Bugguide that has a red stripe like yours, instead of a series of dots.
Yeah, it does look like the Northern Black Widow, which would make sense. Was worried there for a second when I saw a RedBack that it looked like, but from what I found RedBacks and Widows are related.
But a widow makes much more sense, just wanted some clarification.
Thanks.
The western black widow, Latrodectus hesperus, often has dorsal markings in addition to the traditional ventral 'hourglass' - see http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/spiders/Latrodectus%20hesperus.htm
I live in Australia and it sure looks the same as our Red Back spider.
Found under rocks and uner the seat of our outback dunnies.
May be their good swimmers and made over to you or better still
maybe they cought a Qantas flight.
Regards Helen (Coffs Harbour)
