Immature female western black widow - Latrodectus hesperus -  Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada August 4, 2006
I was walking through the Oldman River Valley in Lethbridge when I came across a tangled web about half a meter wide built over an exposed patch of clay on the south facing side of a gully. There was a small funnel of web leading to a crack in the clay. When I pried open the crack I found this spider curled up in a ball. The underside had the classic red hourglass. There were also 2 males in the same web. I collected all 3 and bred the female with one of the males on August 21, after she matured. The males have both died since then but the female made an eggsack on October 10.
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