#RED TRANSLUCENT SPIDER HOW TO#
#RED TRANSLUCENT SPIDER SERIES#

Brown widows can vary from almost a white to being almost as dark as a black widow.Camel spiders became an Internet sensation during the Iraq war of 2003, when rumors of their bloodthirsty nature began to circulate online. Realize that distinguishing the two species takes lots of practice and examining lots of specimens.

#RED TRANSLUCENT SPIDER SERIES#

Below will be a series of pictures of brown widows then black widows to show you the great variation in each species as they mature. The brown widow can have some orange in that longitudinal stripe but it will never be bright red. This will also fade and get thinner as the spider matures. Sometimes there is a vivid orange or red stripe in the middle of the longitudinal abdominal stripe. The same place that would have the dot on the immature western black widow is continuous with the stripe (at least in the early stages of life).Īs western black widows mature, they develop more dark pigment in the background area, the stripes start to break up into nebulous isolated patches and eventually disappear as the spider continues to molt and adds darker pigment on its way to turning completely black. Also notice that the forwardmost dot in the brown widow is isolated from the rest of the stripe and is about twice as wide as long.

In the western black widow, the stripe extends almost all the way up the abdomen. In the brown widow, it only extends about half way up the abdomen from the rear. The next thing to look at is the longitudinal stripe. However, the black dot at the top of the light colored line is small and blobby. Compare that to the immature western black widow and you see that the light colored stripe is more of a straight line or may be flattened a little at the top. In the brown widow, it looks something like a finger of a hand projecting upward and the finger is holding a large black rectangular blotch. However, pay attention to the lateral diagonal stripes on the abdomen. The egg sac of the western black widow is either round or pointed at the top, yellow and smooth.Īt first these spiders may look very similar. The egg sac of the brown widow is round and yellow with many little silk spikes sticking out from its surface, looking like a big pollen grain or one of those harbor mines from World War II.

This is the easiest way to tell a brown widow from a black widow. Please check the internet to identify orb weavers to reduce the chance of misidentification. Orb weavers have spines on thier legs, widow spiders have no spines. Many people send in orb weavers orb weavers of the genera Neoscona and Araneus. Below is a pictorial comparison of the two species with ways to differentiate between them. In order to master identifying them, many specimens need to be examined. There is TREMENDOUS variation for both of these species as they grow from babies to adults. Unfortunately, immatures of the native black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus, also are tan with white stripes and are frequently mistaken for brown widows. The brown widow is a tan spider with a series of white stripes. In the western United States, accurate identification of this spider can be difficult. but in the first decade of the 21st century, it spread remarkably quickly, is now found from Texas to South Carolina and is well established in the urban areas of Los Angeles, San Diego and surrounding suburbs. For decades, it lived only in peninsular Florida in the U.S.

The brown widow spider, Latrodectus geometricus, is not native to the United States.

#RED TRANSLUCENT SPIDER HOW TO#

How to identify (and misidentify) Brown Widow

Red translucent spider