I think this might even be a male L. mactans. Juvenile widows, and mature males, retail the dorsal (top side) markings. Females tend to lose them with successive molts. This is the top side of the specimen. The 'hourglass' mark is on the underside.

Yes, youre correct (obviously). When I stated that it might not be developed, I was referring to his comment about the hourglass not connected. I havent seen the pic myself...I was just trying to explain to him why the hourglass is not connected, thats all. :-)

one question... with L. mactans, does the hourglass develop later on or is it fully developed when it's a juvenile? This one had an hourglass marking on the bottom that was not connected...

on the species. In some the hourglass is complete as a juvenile, and just changes shape with each molt. It does not start out split and become fused. Generally they are fused and and stay fused, or change to split, or split from the start which is typical of red widows.

Hourglass shapes are often inconsistent in the three black species.
All three may have fused or split. Variolus is usually split, and the other two are usually fused.

Thanks for clearing that up for me!