SHAkers718
Senior Member
I never thought I was going to get a chance to try out a spider macro, but Seymour here was a decent little poser. 
Post your spiders
- Thread starter Bukitimah
- Start date
Fortkentdad
Senior Member
Used a Nikkor 85mm 1.8 + a RAYNOX DCR-250 magnifying lens attachment.
Have not tried that combination before - interesting.
Don Kuykendall_RIP
RIP :(
We normally have two of these by the front door but I have not seen them this year
We usually have 3 or 4 around the house, but this is the only one that showed up this year.
Do you like the first or the second one better? The first was shot with flash. As much as I hate using flash,( actually I don't hate it, I'm just lazy to learn new stuff) flash is clearly better for shots like these.
Much more clarity in my opinion. I might have to hunker down and start using it a lot more.
Don Kuykendall_RIP
RIP :(
It's handheld. I just took the second shot to see if it would come out interesting, shooting it through the web.
Bob Blaylock
Senior Member
A Pholcus phalangioides, commonly known as the “Daddy Longlegs” spider, a name that is somewhat confusing as there are at least two other critters also known as “Daddy Longlegs” that are similar in size and appearance, but not related; one is an arachnid, but not a spider, and the other is the crane fly, not an arachnid at all, but an insect.
Latrodectus hesperus, the Western Black Widow.
Latrodectus hesperus, the Western Black Widow.
Bob i am confused, the pics look like a Brown widow to me, the link takes you to what we get as black widows down here in So Cal?
EDIT, ok after reading the link it says the males can have brown tan/legs, my bad, i must only be seeing the females.
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Bob Blaylock
Senior Member
Perhaps I'm confused.
I identified it as Latrodectus hesperus based on reading the Wikipedia article on Latrodectus and picking out the species that was indicated to be native to my area. I'd never heard of the brown widow, but looking that up lead me through the Wikipedia article on Latrodectus geometricus, and from there, to an article on the Center for Invasive Species Research (CISR) that goes into great length to tell how to distinguish the two. After reading that article, I'm still not certain which this is. I am most inclined to think that it's an immature female L. hesperus, but I cannot say with confidence that it's not a L. geometricus.
According to this map, the brown widow's presence in California is mostly in the southern part, but they have apparently been sighted here in Sacramento, where I am.
Bob Blaylock
Senior Member
I think I found the answer.
From How to identify (and misidentify) Brown Widow:
And from one of my pictures:
It seems that this subtle, continuous lateral stripe across the front of her abdomen identifies this as a western black widow, and not a brown widow.
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Bob Blaylock
Senior Member
I've got a response from the author of the How to identify (and misidentify) Brown Widow page:
This specimen is really undernourished which makes ID difficult, but I would say you are correct that this is an immature western black widow (who is in need of a good meal). Besides the continuous stripe on the anterior portion of the abdomen, the hourglass is top heavy and with crisp margins which is indicative of a western black widow. People often used the black and tan leg coloration to assume that this is a brown widow but that trait is not diagnostic as both brown widows and immature western black widows display that coloration at some point in their existence. Also, another aspect although I would not call it diagnostic is that I don’t ever see that vivid of a red stripe on a brown widow. Usually the best they can offer is a vivid orange longitudinal abdominal stripe.