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They have a distinct hourglass of some color on the underside of their abdomens, while their abdomens are mostly brown or patterned (and not pretty much solid b
by harshreality 4y ago
They have a distinct hourglass of some color on the underside of their abdomens, while their abdomens are mostly brown or patterned (and not pretty much solid black aside from the hourglass)?
- jehb 4y agoThe hourglass is not always as clear as pictures would have you believe. Once you get to know the body shape, true widows pretty distinctive among spiders around here. (The false widow to me isn't a real lookalike because of the leg shape, but there are other bulbous dark spiders.) The distinction I see most commonly here is the leg banding. True black widows almost always have solid, glossy black legs, without any coloration along them along them. Brown widows do seem to have a lot of difference in coloration along the abdomen, but sometimes look rather plain with abdomens more like some other species, which is why I'd look to the leg colors and body shape as well. I'd welcome advice from an actual arachnologist on this, though!
- pitaj 4y agoNot an archnologist, but I've found one each tell if that their webs are way stretchier than most other spiders. You'll pull one and it will just keep going like a rubber band.