Jul 19
Northern Black Widow (Latrodectus variolus)
Observed by lantinantoine, CC BY-NC
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from New Zealand
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from New Zealand
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from Japan
Northern Black Widow (Latrodectus variolus)
Observed by lantinantoine, CC BY-NC
A male northern black widow spider (Latrodectus variolus) in Big Bend National Park, TX, USA
by Alan Cressler
*tiny white spider crawls on us*
Us: Oh! Hello! :3 *let's it crawl on our hand for a minute*
Us: You're so cute and tiny! We should take pictures!
Us: That pattern is so pretty! And familiar... *looks closer*
Us: Oh...
Us: Oh no...
Us: OH.
Us: OH NO!
Us: 🙂 🙃 🥲 💀 *gently puts spider down*
Found this guy at the park the other day and had no idea what he was. I thought maybe he was a male Argiope aurantia because he was shaped a lot like a male Argiope trifasciata.
Nope.
Turns out he's a male Latrodectus variolus, a.k.a. the northern black widow.
Which seems obvious in hindsight, but never occurred to me because I thought all male widows (widowers?) were tiny. This guy had a leg span of at least an inch and a half.
Northern Black Widow (Latrodectus variolus)
Observed by tysmith, CC BY-NC
Northern Black Widow - Latrodectus variolus
wild black widows I found at work today! Latridectus variolus
Male black widow by Jon Nichols Via Flickr: Not dangerous like the female. Just sayin