Steatoda
(False Widows)

Picture ID 9877

Picture of Steatoda (False Widows) - Female - Dorsal

Comments & ID Thoughts

My son found this spider crawling in our sliding glass track. He said there's a black widow mom!! To me it looks like a black house spider, I tried to usher it out to the porch and the spider became aggressive. So I took pictures and to me my guess would be a Black House Spider (venomous) it definetly looked like a black widow from a distance.

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ItsyBitsy

Hi, welcome to Spider ID. 🙂 I agree it looks like a False Widow (Steatoda), the abdomen doesn’t looks as rounded, the legs aren’t as robust, the color on the legs is more dark brown than black … but all these things can vary. There’s some debris covering the abdomen, if there is any distinguishing pattern there I can’t see it. If there is any red underneath the spider than I am likely wrong and it would be a widow. Sometimes Steatoda grossa can look a lot like a Widow (Latrodectus sp.), when in doubt treat it with caution.

Additional Pictures

Picture of Steatoda spp. (False Widows) - Male - Dorsal Enlarge Picture
Picture of Steatoda spp. (False Widows) - Lateral Enlarge Picture
Picture of Steatoda spp. (False Widows) Enlarge Picture
Picture of Steatoda spp. (False Widows) - Lateral Enlarge Picture