While in Missouri bug hunting, my bro and I stumbled across a grasshopper that had just run into a widow web. Sure as daylight, the next thing we see is this MONSTER 2" L. mactans come shooting out from under her rock and start instantly immobilizing this 2" grasshopper. It only took about 10 seconds for the widow to completely subdue her prey. Here is a short 15 second clip of the HUGE widow in action. I was standing about 4 feet from the widow and her web, as it was shared with 3-4 other widows.

**click on picture to play**

And here are a few pics of the widows I brought home:

Latrodectus spp:




L. mactans:

Cool spiders Steve-o. Watching the video it looked like she was doing the wrapping long distance at first. Spiders are so cool. Love the red hourglass on photo #3. Thanks man.

Yeah, shes a textbook example of a perfect widow. Thanks Patrick!

Those are without a doubt some of the best pics of juvie and adult BWs I have seen. May I use them for a presentation on spider envenomation? My T experience is making me sort of a local EMS "expert" on bites and envenomations and I have been asked to do a continuing ed presentation.

Sure thing! All I ask for is credit, thats all.

Absolutely! In fact the photos will be used as is and an end credit on the presentation.

Black Widows are so beautiful! That was an awesome video and those are really cool pictures!

[font="Comic Sans MS"][color="Purple"][SIZE="4"]where can they find the stripy back ones?[/SIZE][/color][/font]:confused:

Most immature female widows have striking red and white markings on the back. Adult L. variolus often have markings on the back. They are found in the northeastern states as well as in southeastern Canada. Male widows of most species tend to have bright colours and intricate patterns. The adult females of some foreign species have markings on the backs as well. L. hasselti and L. tredecimguttatus are examples, from Australia and the Mediterranian respectively. There is an undescribed species from Laos that is breathtakingly beautiful in my opinion!

Here's a pic (not mine):
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f75/Centruroides/DSCN4027a.jpg

BTW, if anyone can tell me where to get ahold of this species it would be greatly appreciated.

Graham