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What is this? Its not a good pic but I never seen this before here.
Found in basement
- Thread starter Tcollector
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What is this? Its not a good pic but I never seen this before here.
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It looks like it could be either some sort of common house spider or maybe a Latrodectus geometricus. Either way it appears that someone lost a perfectly good cricket in it's web lol
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I was told that this is a brown/ grey widow. Found 3 more. I did not know they were in Ohio.
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Look for an orange hourglass shape underneath the abdomen. They are fairly prolific and apparently quite the travelers. Great displays and crazy breeders. Mine has laid 2 sacs this week, one Saturday night and another one last night. I'd scoop it up and keep it if that's what it is. Really cool spiders. See if you can get a better picture, especially the underside.
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The OP is in Cincinnati....where there aren't any L. geometricus.
It is a Parasteatoda tepidariorum.
It is a Parasteatoda tepidariorum.
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Sounds reasonable enough but if you had asked me a month ago, I would have told you that we don't have geos around here since I had never seen one nor heard of one anywhere around here, but I found a pair in my own backyard and now I have potentially hundreds more all of a sudden since she's's dropped 3 sacs in my care.
I never speak in absolutes when it comes to spiders since they are such great hitchhikers. Especially one as prolific as a Latrodectus. All it would take is one eggsac laid in just the right spot and one trip later, they've hatched in another city. They may not survive the winter, but then again, it isn't winter yet. It may be highly unlikely that a geo is in Cincinnati, but it isn't inconceivable. The picture being what it is, I think a better, closer, clearer picture would be needed for a positive ID, although I have no reason to doubt it is a P. tepidariorum
I never speak in absolutes when it comes to spiders since they are such great hitchhikers. Especially one as prolific as a Latrodectus. All it would take is one eggsac laid in just the right spot and one trip later, they've hatched in another city. They may not survive the winter, but then again, it isn't winter yet. It may be highly unlikely that a geo is in Cincinnati, but it isn't inconceivable. The picture being what it is, I think a better, closer, clearer picture would be needed for a positive ID, although I have no reason to doubt it is a P. tepidariorum
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Yup yup yup. Some years ago I wrote to Rod Crawford inquiring about a black latrodectus of some sort here in N Thailand. He checked and told me none had been verified present but they are "extremely metropolitan". And now, wham, Geometricus is found and IDed in several provinces. They found a niche in the ecosystem. To be precise, Geo and globalization is an unholy and incredibly effective partnership.
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I actually started to mention Thailand as I remember you mentioning Latrodectus making an appearance there. It seems to me that Latrodectus is one of the hardiest and most well traveled spiders out there. It wouldn't surprise me to find out they'd hitched a ride with the Mars rover and are now taking over the planet lol
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There are black widows in Cincinnati but in all the years I've raised widows the only ones I've ever seen that color were geos. I know geos aren't supposed to be there but why is it so impossible for one to have hitchhiked that far? It certainly wouldn't be the first time a spider was found outside of its range. To the OP, it would really help if you could gets some clearer shots... Dorsal as well as ventral. As to the nay-sayers, I think their ability to travel outside their range is not only well known but well documented as well. I'd keep that in mind
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@sraight8. There are black widows and that's the only ones I've seen here. Mostly in my garage every now and then. The only other spiders I've seen are wolf and daddy long legs. I tried to have a couple people ID the ones I just found. I have gotten nothing but random answers. I did not see any hour glass so I'm guessing NOT a brown widow. I had the whole house exterminated though. I don't have anymore pics :-(
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That's a shame. It may or may not have been a geo, but absence of an hourglass isn't always the best indicator. Sometimes they don't have one. If they do, it's a very good indicator lol.