Black Widow?

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Glammy

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Found this little guy crawling in our tent, on our hiking trip to the Giants Castle region of the Drakensberg.

Can anyone confirm what it is? Second pic is rather terrible (first one isn't much better), but posting it so you can see the red stripe on the bum :o

Black widow is my only guess (and Google's only guess too), but really unsure as the marking seem very random and not the traditional hourglass shape.

It was quite small, body was only about 10-12mm

8289108974


8288047285


EDIT - My links aren't working (total noob so no idea why) please scroll down to DJ... post showing corrected links that will open the pics
 
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Glammy said:
Found this little guy crawling in our tent, on our hiking trip to the Giants Castle region of the Drakensberg.

Can anyone confirm what it is? Second pic is rather terrible (first one isn't much better), but posting it so you can see the red stripe on the bum :o

Black widow is my only guess (and Google's only guess too), but really unsure as the marking seem very random and not the traditional hourglass shape.

It was quite small, body was only about 10-12mm

8289108974_1cd33107f5_b.jpg


8288047285_227fbed528_b.jpg
Click to expand...

Pics aren't displaying. Fixed for ya...
 
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Yes, I'd say it's a black widow. I have the brown version around here at my house, I've lost count of how many I've killed so far.
 
that is most definitely a Black widow..female, nasty little biatch, i would have burnt down the tent and hit hit the beach:D
 
Shiboink said:
that is most definitely a Black widow..female, nasty little biatch, i would have burnt down the tent and hit hit the beach:D
Click to expand...
Whatever it is, it's a male, not a female - in the top pic the 'boxing gloves' on the palps are clearly visible.
 
I thought that with Black Widows it is the female that is black and the male is brown? Also..as with humans...it is the female that is really toxic :D
 
Ockie said:
I thought that with Black Widows it is the female that is black and the male is brown? Also..as with humans...it is the female that is really toxic :D
Click to expand...

No.

Brown widow = Latrodectus geometricus

Black widow = Latrodectus mactans / Latrodectus hesperus / Latrodectus variolus

*edit*

Colour-wise, I think you may be correct, actually.

Males being small and brown.

When we talk of how spiders look, I think we are generally referring to the females?
 
* In SA, the widow spiders are known as button spiders.
* The Black Widow from the US and the Brown Widow from Oz are different species to those found here.
* The colour in the name of our button spiders often bares no resemblence to the actual colour of the spider.
* The Black Button is seldom found in residential settings and the Brown Button is seldom found in the veld.
* If any red markings are present in the Black Button, it is *always* on the top half of the abdomen. The Brown Button has the red hour-glass marking on the bottom half of the abdomen.

In the case of the spider under discussion in this thread, if it came from the veld, it is probably a Black Button (although it is normally found in the drier western half of the country). If it was transported with the tent from wherever the OP lives, it is probably a Brown Button.

Here a [female] Brown Button, showing the short 2nd and 3rd sets of legs associated with the family:



edit:
For copa, the Black Button in SA is now known as L. indistinctus. L. mactans is the American Black Widow.
 
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Was walking around my pool on the weekend and came across a strip of palm leef that was folded into a U and almost sealed with spider web.

Curious me pick's it up to examine it closer, only to see little things moving in there, then like 5 spiders pop out a small opening in the web.

Got a bit of a fright and dropped it back in the pool. One of the little buggers, got off and ran on the surface of the water.

So I picked it up again to look at them more closely and looked like a whole bunch of little rain spiders. So just chucked them into our garden.

Should have taken a pic, looked quite cool!
 
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