Another beautiful animal from right near where I was sitting tonight, but this time only about 15 feet away. Amelia Goebel was working with me and she spotted this one, a southern black widow spider (Latrodectus mactans) with a web and burrow.
These spiders are fairly venomous, so some care was needed not to touch the web when photographing it as it would think a finger tapping the web would be prey and might shoot over for a bite.
These spiders make webs, but are not orb weavers so the web is more of a scatter than the classic orb. Normally they hang upside down and the classic red hourglass is visible on their belly, but this photo is the top of the spider sitting on the web just above it's burrow hole and shows the nice top pattern.
These spiders are fairly venomous, so some care was needed not to touch the web when photographing it as it would think a finger tapping the web would be prey and might shoot over for a bite.
These spiders make webs, but are not orb weavers so the web is more of a scatter than the classic orb. Normally they hang upside down and the classic red hourglass is visible on their belly, but this photo is the top of the spider sitting on the web just above it's burrow hole and shows the nice top pattern.
Southern black widow spider (Latrodectus mactans) on the web above the burrow
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