Photo 241311, (c) Todd Jackson, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Todd Jackson

Attribution © Todd Jackson
some rights reserved
Uploaded by todd_jackson todd_jackson
Source iNaturalist
Associated observations

Photos / Sounds

What

False Widow Spiders (Genus Steatoda)

Observer

todd_jackson

Date

October 30, 2006

Description

While hiking through Poli Poli State Park in the uplands of Maui I came across a large number of spiders that resembled the black widow, however; these spiders were slightly smaller and the red markings typical of most Latrodectus spp. appeared to be obscured on these individuals (I found about 20 or so on my hike). I'm not sure whether this is genus Latrodectus (widow spiders) or Steatoda (false widows). Even though its been several years, I seem to remember seeing some of these spiders with the typical papery egg sacs seen in L. hesperus or L. mactans webs, but I don't have a photo and these individuals did appear a little smaller than L. mactans that I have seen in Texas. Does L. hesperus ever exhibit a loss of the red pigment?

Sizes