Latrodectus (Theridiidae) Picture Thread

Megalon, BTW thanks for posting the article link. Keep bringing it on.
I have yet to read a good discription of any of these mid-east flavors. There are a few that are stealth fighter flat black with no hr glass nor adult markings.
Info regarding web structure, sac shape and discriptions of males, slings and subs may be the only way to even attempt a reasonable guess ID.

Here's the new L. menavodi sac!

just a couple pictures of locally caught L. hesperus. they're my favorite to take pictures of, all my ladies are beautiful.

Edie, great widows! Keep the images coming.
Is the top one really that pale and brown? Would love to see more images of that honey.

buthus said:

Edie, great widows! Keep the images coming.
Is the top one really that pale and brown? Would love to see more images of that honey.

Click to expand...

yeah shes pretty light, still young though. she wasn't black at all when i caught her. i have a full grown widow that is pretty pale, i'll get some pictures of her next time.

Here's one my subadult/adult (?) female L. pallidus eating a roach:

finally - some pictures!

here is my L tredecimguttatus. i am interested in any information about the difference between the ones with the spots and the jet black ones. i think this one is mature.

IMG]http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p26/Rizzolo1/P1180133croppedtred-1.jpg[/IMG]



here is my little L revivensis. she is not mature yet, although she looks pretty voluptuous in the pictures. her legs are still sort of stubby - don't know what she will look like when she matures.



finally - and here i need your help - here is one of several mature L mactans (?) that i raised from small slings. i am not so sure of the id and was hoping for some input. i think she (they) may be hesperus.

Your mactans is most likely a hesperus from the looks of her and especially if collected from your locale.

Your rev could be that...but could be one of several (more?) species that hail from spain and throughout the mediterranean and mid-east. I plan to post some thoughts and pics comparing my supposive black treds and revs. (We truely need a latro expert to take a look and share his/her knowledge on the subject. My knowledge and observations should be taken very lightly...light enough not to crash thru the thin ice that it sits on. )
Egg sac shape (but only one rev sac to compare) and adult male markings are all that i can go on at the moment. After getting a few of the revs into large enclosures, i will be able to add web structure and maybe some other behavorial differences (if any) to the bag o'clues.

As for treds, there is supposably (I have been told) an ongoing debate regarding whether L.lugubris should remain a seperate specie, be considered a sub-specie or just a morph of tredecimguttatus.

the "mactans" was actually not collected locally, but was captive hatched. i have not followed the whole chain yet, but i think its ancestors came from a crossover zone, so could be either.

the first clue for me that the 4 female "mactans" might actually be hesperus (aside from the non-steroetypical coloration), was when i attempted mating them to several male L mactans that i was pretty sure of (got them along with another stereotypical female mactans). i got a fertile egg sac very soon after from the one female i was sure of, but nothing a continuation of infertile egg sacs from the questionable females.

it is ironic the that males of the various species are far more distinct in their differences, and are a much better indicator of species than the females. so, if you can get offspring, raise them up to maturity, then you can probably make an id pretty conclusively. so, it would make sense to categorize/catalogue the different male traits. Get right on that, will ya?!

buthus - As for treds, there is supposably (I have been told) an ongoing debate regarding whether L.lugubris should remain a seperate specie, be considered a sub-specie or just a morph of tredecimguttatus.

Click to expand...

As, as for my so-called-tred (shown in previous post), i did not follow what you were saying. What is the relationship of the all-black tred and the spotted tred. It seems that the name "tredecimguttatus" seems to refer to 13 tear-shaped spots? that seems antithetical to an all black widow. the references i have seen to treds for sale indicate all-black. hmmm.

both the tredecimguttatus and revivensis shown above reportedly have their ancestry in turkey, around Istanbul. i know that doesn't really narrow it down.

Anyway, if anyone out there has a spotted tred (or whatever it is), i would be love to attempt a mating, and would share in the offspring, or i would buy the male outright (and still share some).

Best regards,
-Matt

Latrodectus bishopi building eggsac.

Hell@all,

A few days ago I was able to withness the complete building
of a L. bishopi eggsac. It took over 4 hours.
I was able to make some close pic's by simply putting my webcam
into het container. Since I have no LCD on the stupid webcam
I wasnt able to aim that good, but from the 400 pics I have taken,
the next 10 are the best.

The pics are numbered chronologicaly. So Pic 1 is the beginning ;-)

Greetz@all.

L. bishopi building her eggsac (rest of pics)

Here are the last 5 pics of the bishopi eggsac building.

Greetz@all.

Those are beautiful Tom. Wish my momma would do that!

Matt- I just realized something...is your bishopi 'one brick short of a load?' did she make that eggsac upside down? or is that just the way the pic turned out?...

She made it with the tapered side up (or right side up), but she moved it around a bit after she finished building.

-Matt

A post was deleted as the photographs posted were not his/her own.

As a result, the subsequent posts in reply were also deleted.

Please note that picture threads are designed to showcase specimens we have photographed ourselves, in the wild or captivity.

Thanks,
Sheri

Beautiful spider and great pic swatc1h! Clarity that I cannot consistantly achieve.





Current mating projects...
My very brown - black tred. This ones done. Pics coming soon.


My special girl... been grooming this beautiful hesp for this moment ...she is mating right now as I type this ...with a very special male. Pics coming soon.



rev (IDiQ). This will be the second sibling from a single sac that will be mated. She is ready to rock n' roll.





Sibling of the bishopi I already mated. I still cant believe this babe is sitting right in front of me! Truely the latro lover's dream. ance:


BTW...these are all eating Phoenix worms...supposably highly nutritious and chucked full of calcium goodness...yum, yum. Great feeder worm...soft like waxworms, but not so much fat. My widows seem to love them.

Interesting deformity. Not sure when or what happened, but i suspect that it was a molt gone bad. I dont think she has another molt and if thats the case, then this beauty mark will surely remain with her the rest of her life.