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Widow appreciation.....

L

latrodectusfan

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Didn't know if there were any die-hard widow fans in the group but I thought you all might enjoy some nice close-ups.

L.hesperus
newwidowpic.jpg


L.hesperus
cricketwrap.jpg


L.variolus?
DSCN2398.jpg


L.variolus?
widowfallcr.jpg


L.hesperus
DSCN0519.jpg


L.bishopi
Red.jpg


L.bishopi
newred1.jpg
 
Hi,
I'm glad to see some positive fallout from the Pete related garbage. There are at least two of you from the Spider side of the hobby, that I have "talked" to, and I'm glad you have "stuck" around, and are actually partaking of other areas of Fauna Classifieds (other than the Board of Inquiry).

I think our hobbies have a lot of crossover. I myself am always interested in the "bugs" I find when I am out herping. Particularly, the arachnids. Have much experience with Ca native "Tarantulas", and scorpions, especially the Giant Harries, haries (Hydrurus sp?)

Anyway, those are some awesome macro photos. Unbelievable shots, especially the one with the cricket. Are those scanned real photos, or digital shots?
 
Hey John.
Thanks for the kind words. They are digital pics. Last year I invested in a digital camera for the purpose of macro with spiders. I ended up having the good fortune of having some of the photos used in a zoo exhibit here in Seattle.
Unfortunately at this time, I am spiderless. I sold my collection a few months back, however, I am attempting to sway and swoon my wife into letting me build it up again.
I definitely agree with your view on hobby crossover. Originally, my passion was snakes, but they proved to cumbersome for our townhouse dwelling ways.
I found my way into the spider hobby after watching a local reptile enthusiast perform a show at my daughter's daycare. He is somewhat of a local legend with the herps so I decided to find my niche by going at it from a "spider angle." My draw to doing shows was the fact that it allowed me the opportunity to work with my two girls and make a little money on the side.
At the beginning of the journey, I had not even held a spider so you can imagine the interesting evenings that I spent on our livingroom floor trying to muster up the courage to pull one out, all-the-while, my wife sat in the background telling me that people will never be interested in what I have to say if I am as scared as they are about the subject matter.
Needless to say, I quickly got over the fear, worked feverishly to learn as much as I could about spiders, and went to work. The rest is spider history.
I have really enjoyed your site thus far. I think I originally signed up a year or two back and forgot about it until my recent conversation with Peter in which he eluded to some troubles he was having on here. I wanted to read over some of the accounts firsthand to get a better picture of what was really going on.
It is unfortunate.
The little scuffles that I have had with him on the spider sites were little more than pissing and moaning at each other so when he called and apologized, I quickly accepted. The fighting originally broke out over some pics that he posted of handling hot-herps. Many felt it was little more than showboating and were more concerned with a young child seeing the photos and copying or attempting to copy his actions. The only bad thing was.....I was guilty of showboating with some rather unsavory spiders including the widows. Amazing how quickly I humbled myself after someone pointed that out.
In any case, I did talk with him yesterday after seeing all of your names listed on his "dangerlist" and mentioned to him that it might be a good idea to remove them and let it go. At the point that I talked with him, he had already done so.
The allegations posted on some of these threads are very serious and I realize why many are so passionate about it. I remember when I kept herps, I was constantly worrying that the Humane Society or some other organization would eventually get their way and have all exotics banned. At the time, there seemed to be a rash of python related deaths from irresponsible keepers.
Fortunately for the spider lovers, I think we are managing to fly under the radar for now.
I do hope that Peter comes around. I think that there is a lot of pride at stake as well as embarassment. I noticed that many of you have eluded to the fact that he could one day become a great asset to the hobby if certain things change which I feel was a definite positive. I think that he is certainly capable of changing and honestly think that this whole "series of unfortunate events" has had a serious impact on him.
Ok....I have managed to talk way too much on an overdone subject.
Take care John

PS-jump on over to the spider forums sometime.
 
Ah yes the Widows

Man it's about time someone around here keeps widows also..nice pics by the way.
I keep mactans, geometricus,bishopi and another one I found in Florida [drawing a blank on the name].
The mactans I find around south Ohio and the geometricus, bishopi and the other, I cought in Florida.
The geometricus are kind of funny as they get older the adult females go from an almost white abdomen to and almost black one.The same with the bishopi they also get darker with age, these I cought in an area just west of the lake. they seem to be in palm beach county and in Ft pierce. I have cought bishopi where I have cought B. vagans.
Just wondering where did you get your bishopi?? there are very few people that know where to collect them.
 
Jason,
Those photos have single handedly changed my mind about digital cameras. Still have and use an old Minolta SLR-for my field and Macro shots. What digital setup do you have? Is it a point and shoot with built in Macro or maybe one of those that look like a "real" camera with interchangable lenses. I'd love to know the particulars, Megapixels etc. if you don't mind.

Also, have you actually printed the photos? How do they look? The biggest reason I haven't gotten a digital is that the prints, look like prints not photos, if you know what I mean. I haven't done any from one of those actuall photo printers, so not sure how they would look.

thanks
John
 
Hi John.
Yep, can't beat the widows. Unfortunately, I don't have a single spider at the moment.
I will be acquiring my widow collection back from my friend, however, it will be minus all of my L.bishopi. At one time I had 9 adult females but lost about half of them for unknown reasons. The others died in my friends care.
I got the L.bishopi from Glade Herp for 30.00 each.
My question for you is.....when's your next trip to Florida? I have considered getting some babies, however, the last time I did this, 9 out of 10 turned out to be male.
I am sure it was nothing more than luck of the draw.
How do you house your L.bishopi? I kept them in containers with sand and dry moss and a screened lid. It seems they are a bit more delicate than the Blacks.
Any help or info on this topic would be much appreciated.
I should be getting 1 L.mactans, 6 or 8 L.hesperus, and 2 or 3 L.geometricus back.
Well...glad to know that there is another widow keeper here. And remember....Michigan is cold right now so you better be thinking about that Florida trip........maybe next week? Ha ha.
Seriously, if you do go back, I would love to send you a list and some money.
Do you collect near Ocala? I have heard there is a good place somewhere in that area. Probably shouldn't broadcast that though.....talk to ya soon!
 
Those photos have single handedly changed my mind about digital cameras. Still have and use an old Minolta SLR-for my field and Macro shots. What digital setup do you have? Is it a point and shoot with built in Macro or maybe one of those that look like a "real" camera with interchangable lenses. I'd love to know the particulars, Megapixels etc. if you don't mind.

Also, have you actually printed the photos? How do they look? The biggest reason I haven't gotten a digital is that the prints, look like prints not photos, if you know what I mean. I haven't done any from one of those actuall photo printers, so not sure how they would look.
Click to expand...


Hi again.
I have a Nikon Coolpix 5700. It is higher up in the Coolpix series, however, in retrospect, the lower model Coolpix are just as good.
It has built-in macro capabilities which, from what I have heard, are some of the best in the business. It focuses at a distance of 1". The 4000 series Coolpix for some reason are even better - focusing all the way down to 1/2"
The pics look great on photo paper. I did offer a handful of my pics for sale during the zoo exhibit. For this I used printroom.com. You just upload the images, pick the size, and they mail them out to you. Works great.
The first image was taken with me holding the cage and prying the lid up with one hand, and the camera in the other.
No special lighting although I did make fine tunings in the program that I have. This was nothing more than adjusting the brightness/contrast.
I did post some tarantula pics in the photo gallery. Have a look when you get a chance.
Thanks John.
Jason
 
Excellent pictures as usual Jason! I just know you posted those bishopi pictures so I would drool over them!

Funny how I've been a member of Fauna for a while now and until yesterday had not posted a single thing! That's gotta change!
 
Excellent pictures as usual Jason! I just know you posted those bishopi pictures so I would drool over them!
Click to expand...

I wish I still had some.....the only one that Dwayne has left is roaming about in his room somewhere.....eeeekkk

Funny how I've been a member of Fauna for a while now and until yesterday had not posted a single thing! That's gotta change!
Click to expand...

Nice to know that Leanne is in da house! I like this forum. There is an incredible amount of stuff here. Lator gator.
 
Bishopi I keep like all my scaffold web builders, [got a lot of different things]
1 gallon wide mouth plastic jars, like the kind they put candy in at convenience stores. These are up side down for easy waste removal, you just un twist the 'lid' and remove the waste and clean the neck and lid. Replace it and clean bottom...The female spiders 9 out of ten times will make the base nest in the 'top'[which is the bottom] and usually retreat and curl up.
Of course mactans, hesperus and variolus are rather agressive and will turn around and spray web at you or even try and bite so be careful.
I would just like to say that these guys even the geometricus [lesser venom??] have the ability for an extended hospital stay and are NOT for beginners

Florida will be this summer sometime in July or August as allways and I'll collect ya some :)
 
Those are some amazing pictures. You really have a knack for that. I have had my camera forever and still can't figure out the macro hee hee
 
Of course mactans, hesperus and variolus are rather agressive and will turn around and spray web at you or even try and bite so be careful.
Click to expand...

Do you think that the above mentioned are aggressive? I found them to be skittish, (L.geometricus is by far more skittish imo), but never felt that they were aggressive.
My L.hesperus would "rush the lid" as I opened it, however, they always backed off once they were over their initial fright, (likely caused by the 10,000 vibrations sent through their web).

I would just like to say that these guys even the geometricus [lesser venom??] have the ability for an extended hospital stay and are NOT for beginners
Click to expand...

I wholeheartedly agree with you on this one. When I received my shipment of L.bishopi from Glade, I was in the process of transferring them into their more permanent homes. One proceeded to crawl out onto my hand and shortly thereafter, I felt a prick on my hand. As I went to shoo her off my hand, it was only then that I noticed an eggsac in her container.
Nothing ever developed but it had me a bit concerned nonetheless.
Lesson learned......."eyes on the spider at all times."

Florida will be this summer sometime in July or August as allways and I'll collect ya some
Click to expand...

You are quickly becoming my new hero! If you ever feel like doing some L.hesperus for L.mactans, let me know.
Talk to ya later John.
 
Those are some amazing pictures. You really have a knack for that. I have had my camera forever and still can't figure out the macro hee hee
Click to expand...

Thanks. What kind of camera do you have? I have been seriously considering taking a class taught by Nikon because I don't know anything but the macro!
 
Yes I do consider them agressive...skittish maybe...but the blacks will defend thier web more than the geometricus [which has a habit of falling out the web in a ball when disturbed]
The blacks will also more readily go for food in the web where geometricus seems to 'test the water a bit' before diving on that meal.

Adult females will lay infertile sacs if not bred.
 
but the blacks will defend thier web more than the geometricus [which has a habit of falling out the web in a ball when disturbed]
Click to expand...

I will totally agree with you on this one. L. geometricus is very skittish.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree on the aggressiveness of the Blacks.
I tend to use the term defensive rather than aggressive and it has been my experience that the Black Widows are actually quite gentle and need a fair amount of provoking to deliver a bite.
Not that this should be tested though.
I used to handle them quite regularly during presentations, however, I decided to refrain from doing so as of late, to avoid sending mixed signals to the children and adults that frequent the shows.
My initial reason for handling them was to snuff out the typical myths associated with them such as them being aggressive.
I was afraid that my young audience members might follow suit and therefore, have since discontinued this practice.
 
used to handle them quite regularly during presentations, however, I decided to refrain from doing so as of late, to avoid sending mixed signals to the children and adults that frequent the shows.
My initial reason for handling them was to snuff out the typical myths associated with them such as them being aggressive.
I was afraid that my young audience members might follow suit and therefore, have since discontinued this practice.

That's a good idea to discontinue that practice...I will agree with you on the fact that out of the web they [blacks] can be rather un-agressive and almost curious. In the web they seem to be rather defensive and more apt to grab the food item or spray your finger with webbing...But yeah we will agree to disagree here.. :)

Man I gotta admit it is rather nice seeing some new faces here that like bugs and such as much as me...of course I have my herps
 
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