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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Chelicerates (Chelicerata) » Arachnids (Arachnida) » Spiders (Araneae) » True Spiders (Araneomorphae) » Entelegynae » Cobweb Spiders (Theridiidae) » Widow Spiders (Latrodectus) » Western Black Widow (Latrodectus hesperus) » juveniles (Latrodectus hesperus juveniles)
Photo#854046
Latrodectus hesperus - juvenile Western Black Widow - Latrodectus hesperus
Copyright © 2013 Lynette Elliott

Latrodectus hesperus - juvenile Western Black Widow - Latrodectus hesperus
near river road, Plains, Sanders County, Montana, USA
October 11, 2013
Went on a hike and found a bunch of black widows in shallow holes in the ground.
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Contributed by Lynette Elliott on 11 October, 2013 - 4:34pm
Last updated 5 January, 2014 - 10:53am

Moved
Moved from Western Black Widow.
… Lynette Elliott, 5 January, 2014 - 10:53am login or register to post comments

Info Page
Moved from Spiders. I'm using this image on the info page.
… Lynette Elliott, 13 October, 2013 - 9:18am login or register to post comments

Latrodectus hesperus
That's an awesome abdomen. Grayscale mode!
… Kyron Basu, 11 October, 2013 - 5:35pm login or register to post comments

 
Grayscale mode!
That this specimen is entirely gray and black is slightly troubling to me. I don't see any other juveniles of this species in the guide that are this color. I'm going to let this hang out a bit and ask around to be sure I've got the ID correct.
… Lynette Elliott, 12 October, 2013 - 8:54am login or register to post comments

 
Brown Widow
It could be a Brown Widow juvenile. Brown Widows have sometimes been called Gray Widows. They are apparently now in California and most recently New Mexico so they could have easily have gone up two states! Here's a good identification link. It's Rick Vetter's site and he has seen thousands of widows over 40 years, so he'll probably help you with ID.
http://cisr.ucr.edu/identifying_brown_widow_spiders.html
… Nigel Horsley, 13 September, 2018 - 3:33pm login or register to post comments

 
Interesting
I hadn’t considered that. I’ll try to send Rick an email. Thanks.
… Lynette Elliott, 18 November, 2018 - 7:21am login or register to post comments

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