Maybe I used the wrong term in immature, I just meant to point out that I'm sure their not done growing because all the others (male and females) that I've seen are at least 3 times the size of these. Of course I've never seen one in winter either. They are everywhere in this area in the warmer months.

I was lucky to get these, they were on an old floormat for my truck that I got out of some leaves between my house and a storage box. I'm guessing the females may be still in the leaves. Is it normal for these guys to be found in Feb. in the Carolinas?

On the other image, Jeff cleared up that these are in fact subadults. After their next molt they will be adults, and they will not be noticeably larger. They will not continue to grow afterward. They will mate one or more times, and are likely to die of old age within 30 days of reaching maturity. That's what the males of most (or maybe all) spider species do.

Females generally live several months longer; long enough to lay one or more egg sacs. They are also usually larger than the males. For widows, this size difference is pretty obvious, as shown here:


If you've seen males that are at least three times this size then I have to question how you determined their gender.

Spiders don't migrate, so where they are found they can be found there all year long at some stage of development. It wouldn't be uncommon to find a subadult male at this time of year, since they generally overwinter at that stage in the northern part of their range(1).