Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Bob Blaylock" data-source="post: 578909" data-attributes="member: 16749">Perhaps I'm confused.&nbsp; I identified it as Latrodectus hesperus based on reading the Wikipedia article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus" target="_blank">Latrodectus</a> and picking out the species that was indicated to be native to my area.&nbsp; I'd never heard of the brown widow, but looking that up lead me through the Wikipedia article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus_geometricus" target="_blank">Latrodectus geometricus</a>, and from there, to <a href="http://cisr.ucr.edu/identifying_brown_widow_spiders.html" target="_blank">an article on the Center for Invasive Species Research (CISR) that goes into great length to tell how to distinguish the two</a>.&nbsp; After reading that article, I'm still not certain which this is.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.<img src="http://cisr.ucr.edu/images/brown_widow_spider_distribution_california.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bob Blaylock, post: 578909, member: 16749"] Perhaps I'm confused. I identified it as [i]Latrodectus hesperus[/i] based on reading the Wikipedia article on [I][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus]Latrodectus[/url][/I] 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 [I][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus_geometricus]Latrodectus geometricus[/url][/I], and from there, to [URL="http://cisr.ucr.edu/identifying_brown_widow_spiders.html"]an article on the Center for Invasive Species Research (CISR) that goes into great length to tell how to distinguish the two[/URL]. After reading that article, I'm still not certain which this is. I am most inclined to think that it's an immature female [i]L. hesperus[/i], but I cannot say with confidence that it's not a [i]L. geometricus[/i]. 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. [img]http://cisr.ucr.edu/images/brown_widow_spider_distribution_california.jpg[/img] [/QUOTE]

Verification