Brown Widow - InspectionNews

Travis Grubbs · #1 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 04:59 AM

I discovered this brown widow at a convenience store yesterday. This is only the second one that I have ever seen.

Ron Bibler · #2 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 09:09 AM

Its a black widow. sometimes they just come out looking like that. kind of like some of us. L.O.L. Odd colors like that will tell you not to mess with it. that little sucker bites.

Best

Ron

Rick Hurst · #3 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 09:29 AM

It looks like a male comb-footed spider (family Theridiidae). Some of them are called false widow spiders.

The male black widow is usually much smaller than the "black widow". The male has very thin legs and a very small abdomen.

Here is a picture and a female and a male.

rick

Rick Hurst · #4 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 09:31 AM

Sorry about that, here is the pics.

rick

Bob White · #5 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron Bibler

Its a black widow. . . . .

Best

Ron

Nope. Brown widow. See Brown Widow Spiders article at University of Florida Extension, Sarasota County

Ted Menelly · #6 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob White

Nope. Brown widow. See Brown Widow Spiders article at University of Florida Extension, Sarasota County

I took one of those and put it in a jar. It turned shiny black. The folks I gave it to called someone about identification but no one had an answer to the color change. That particular black widow was the largest I had ever seen. I don't know if a bite from a huge black widow would be any worse than a smaller female but I would not want to be the one to find out.

Jerry Peck · #7 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 02:40 PM

One distinctive way to tell the difference are those spiny egg sacks.

Travis Grubbs · #8 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 03:03 PM

It is a brown widow. There is such a species (or sub species). Georgia Outdoor News recently did an article on them. I beleive Jerry is right about the spiney egg sacks. The egg sack that I have seen with a black widow have not been spiney, and I do not recall their being more than one.

The location of the web is another difference. All of the black widows i have ever found were in dark concealed locations, such as insdie crawlspace doors, under metal roof panels on the ground, under vinyl siding, etc. This brown widow was in the corner of a store window. The other one that I found was in a web stretched between two bushes on a vacant lot.