
Comments & ID Thoughts
Common Household? Brown Widow?
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Oct 8, 2018
- Photographed: Oct 8, 2018
- Spider: Parasteatoda tepidariorum (Common House Spider)
- Sex:
- Maturity:Adult
- Location: Conyers, Georgia, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Under rock, log, or debris
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes: Dorsal, Egg sacs, Spiderlings
Common House Spider, Parasteatoda tepidariorum. 🙂
Hey, Thanks so much for the id…how sure are you this is correct? I need to know in case any others show up 🙂 It looks like several possibilities
Brown Widows (Latrodectus geometricus) have distinctive egg sacs, they’re spiky little balls. Parasteatoda also have distinctive egg sacs, a brown papery teardrop shape as depicted here. There are two species of Parasteatoda in North America, the other is Parasteatoda tabulata which is less common and known from further north, due to it’s similarity to P. tepidariorum however it is possible that it’s range extends further than what is known but if your spider were that one I’d expect to see a more pronounced scalloped white line on the abdomen. Here are Brown Widow egg sacs for comparison: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1143027/bgimage