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Southern black widow

Latrodectus mactans

Photo by Amy20
Published on Project Noah
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36.4853, -94.2122

Field Notes

Description:

Black spider, red hourglass markings. Abdomen not as large as I've seen in pictures of black widows though.

Notes:

Spotted next to my kid's swing set.

Species ID Suggestions

Southern black widow

Latrodectus mactans

Comments (1)

I'm no expert but I would guess this to be a young L. mactans. You live in an area with overlap between the northern and southern, and I'm going by the BugGuide info that says the 2 red triangles usually touch to form the hourglass in the southern. As for the abdomen being smaller than what you've seen in photos, that's just because it's young and skinny. They plump up as they grow.

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