Thanks Lynette;

I'm no expert, but my readings on these spiders seemed to indicate that the red back markings are more common on the southern widow than the northern version.

This one had a "squat-looking" hour-glass belly mark, whch I believe is also characteristic of the southern variety.

She may have been a youngish female.

Terry, nice image!

Do you happen to remember if the hourglass was solid:


or broken?


This would confirm the species. Southern black widows have a "solid" hourglass whereas the Northern black widows have a "broken" hourglass.

Hi Chris!

Thanks!

The belly marking was a solid, but squat-looking hourglass.
It looked like your top image, but was not quite as elongated in the middle. Definitely not "broken" like the northern.

terry

I moved this to the Southern Black Widow image page (Latrodectus mactans). Thank you for sharing! (especially since your image is a little different than the other images; your specimen clearly has the red markings on the top of the abdomen and a clear picture of the egg sac.)

From what I understand, there is some variation in the length of the hourglass mark, so the broken/solid hourglass is the best way to ID. There is actually another species of widow in your area, the brown widow (L. geometricus, info), which is strongly believed not to be dangerous, but the egg sac is wrong for the brown widow. :)