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Comments & ID Thoughts
Only comes out at night. Looks like a huge black widow but it's brown. Central California Coast.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Jan 5, 2019
- Photographed: Jan 5, 2019
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Baywood-Los Osos, California, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.),Saltwater ocean, river, lake, stream
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes:
Any ideas?
I don’t know what it is but I just saw one here in Los Osos. I thought the same thing. That it looked like a giant black widow but not the right color. Also too big to be a male. I relocated it outside
Genus Steatoda spiders are known as the False Widows. Most of the species found in the US are much smaller than widows, but one, Steatoda grossa, can be quite large.
I’m guessing Steatoda grossa, the Large False Widow. Note that the legs are translucent brown, rather than solid black, and there is no hourglass marking.
See the underside of a female Steatoda grossa here:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/613584
Did you ever find out what it was?
Hello Shianne, and welcome to SpiderID!