Your arm is freaking me out with this pic. It’s like you’re rubber. 
Have you ever had one of your spiders jump like off of you and get lost? She looks so small!
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i haven’t held her much but when i did i held her over my bed cause i can see her easily on the red. the one time she jumped off my arm she just kinda stood there and the climbed back onto my hand when i offered it to her. Also it’s so cute how she extends her front legs to ask to get on my hand. 
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Wow! She is amazing! I live southern Indiana and I did try to look up the type of black widow in my locality and what I found was “Theridiidae”? Southern black widow.
They are identified by a red orange hour glass on their abdomen. I have to say they are incredibly intriguing imo.
Does the above description sound correct? And what do you have yours in? I suppose I should start carrying a container around with me? And I am afraid of being bitten because it sounds like their venom is extremely dangerous……lol!
I suppose I might find one in a park bathroom possibly. There is a really nice park near me…….
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She is a little cutie! I just put my little girl in a larger enclosure and she has been all over the place! I probably need to put a couple more small things in it……. I am afraid to let her sit on my arm as @akmorphs said because I am afraid she will jump off and be gone! Lol!
I am now on a hunt thanks to @jawramik, for a southern black widow! Lol! She has given me the fever………
Here is Holiday in her new digs!
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It looks like the southern black widow is Latrodectus mactans. Theridiidae is the family (also includes things like common house spiders and false widows), Latrodectus is the genus (the true widow spiders), and mactans is the species name.
Delilah currently lives in a small arboreal Tarantula Cribs enclosure, but honestly any sort of jar or deli cup would work just fine. It is nice if they have a bit of height for web-building. I think the dimensions of my enclosure are 4"x4"x6". I just splurged on the fancy enclosure because I wanted something crystal clear so I could observe her.
Don’t be too worried about their venom, as they’re not prone to biting (though if you see a female with an egg sac, best leave her be, a momma defending her babies can get a bit more feisty). When I caught Delilah, I just used a stick to gently tap her back leg, she dropped down to the ground on a silk line, and I just put the cup right in her path and she skittered right in. They can’t climb smooth surfaces like a tarantula or jumping spider, so once they’re in a smooth container, they’re pretty well contained.
Most North American black widows look pretty similar as adults. I’ve heard that in some species, females who are not yet mature often have a red line running up from their spinnerets up the back of their abdomen…though I never really saw that with Delilah, so maybe it’s not a hard and fast rule. 
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All this talk has me wanting to go find one now!
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Well while you are at it……. 
lol!
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Ok I am officially on the hunt! Although @spottedbull will find one in his “back 40” for sure! lol! 
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Good luck!!! 
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Thank you!! I will keep you informed! 
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If SpottedBull can get into the back 40 any time soon. Plus I’m not sure how the herd manager will feel about a widow.
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I know what you mean! Lol! If my husband finds a black widow in this house even in an enclosure, I won’t live to tell about it! Hence the hunt is on for a hiding place to put it just in case I find one……
Sometimes I wish I had never found MM, no offense @jawramik! No just kidding of course! But I have made a few sellers on here a tad richer! Or at least reduced their inventory a bit! . All while reducing my bank account! Lol! But hey it’s so worth it! But this MM community is worth all the money in the world to me!
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Incidentally I have just ordered my second jumper so I’m working up to the “widow”!
I have the arachnid fever!
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@caron and @spottedbull, if widows interest you but the spicy venom makes you (or your spouse/housemate) nervous, you might consider keeping a male widow (widower? ) instead of a female.
While males have the same type of venom as females, their fangs and venom glands are so tiny that they’re completely harmless to humans. Males are also really beautiful. While females lose their gorgeous dorsal pattern as they mature, males have a similar dorsal pattern that they retain their whole lives. They typically have a brown or grey base colour instead of black, and they have a ventral hourglass like the girls, but it’s usually white, yellow, or orange instead of red. Males are also quite a bit smaller than females.
The main downside to having a male instead of a female is just that males have considerably shorter lifespans. 6-8 months for a male vs. 1-3 years for a female. Also, once they molt into maturity, male widows kept as pets can become rather preoccupied with getting out of their enclosure, since their prime directive at that point is to go find a lady. On the upside, if he does manage to escape, he’s a native species and is totally harmless, so it wouldn’t cause the same level of panic as a female getting loose in your home.
Just something to consider!
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You are such a wealth of information on these guys! Are you sure you haven’t written a book or done a video or something on them? I think I will still opt for a female given the facts you have provided. Thanks to you I am slowly losing my fear/creepy crawly feeling of spiders in general, black widows in specific. Tarantulas on the other hand, still not a fan of. But hey, I am coming around!
So why are these types of different locality BWs not bred in captivity and available? Tbh I haven’t paid attention to the BWs listed on MM in the past but I have glanced at them here lately while looking at jumpers. Or maybe most are WC?
Anyway, I am going to prepare a container just in case. Lol! And as far as communicating with my husband about this spider subject, mum’s the word! Lol! Male or female would make no difference to him! Lol!
I have thoroughly enjoyed talking about BWs and learning so much about them! I see spiders now in a whole new light now! Thank you so much!!!
And when I find a BW you will be the very first one to know!!). 
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I’ve just spent an inordinate amount of time reading/viewing content other people have created about them. When I ended up with Delilah, I started doing research to determine a) if I should even keep her at all, and if so, b) HOW to keep her. I found widows really fascinating, so my research ended up going way beyond just how to keep her alive (which turned out to be insanely easy).
I know there are people who captive breed them (though I’ve never actually checked MM for them). I suspect they’d be separated by species rather than locality. While most North American widows have common names reflecting the regions to which they’re native (western, southern, eastern, etc.), they’re actually completely separate species.
I’m glad you’re overcoming your fear of spiders! They really are beautiful, fascinating creatures, and I think it’s so unfortunate that our society conditions us to hate and fear them. Jumpers are a great type of spider to help conquer that fear! They’re so stinking cute I can hardly stand it. Widows really aren’t any more difficult to care for than jumpers (actually, they’re even easier in the sense that they require less space for their size and don’t need their enclosures all that tricked out), but I get that their venom makes them seem a bit more formidable. I still put Delilah’s enclosure inside a larger plastic bin whenever I need to open it for feeding or maintenance, juuuuust to be safe (so if she gets out of her enclosure, she’ll still be contained inside the bin). She’s ended up accidentally crawling onto my hand twice, and that definitely got my heart pumping a bit, haha.
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@caron, I just realized that we were hijacking a mantis thread, so…I believe you have a new 8-legged friend to share with the class here!
Super stoked for you, I know you’re going to love your new fluffy baby.
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Oh no! I hope no one is upset with us! I am so sorry! I am just such a blabber mouth! 
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No worries, I just thought it was better to take the conversation here. I didn’t even realize we were in the mantis thread at first! 
Regarding leaving you new curly friend in the deli without a hide or water dish, they’ll be totally fine until tomorrow when the enclosure arrives. You could just drop a little water on the moss and/ or the sides of the deli. If the spider is thirsty, that will allow them to drink.
How big is it??
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Ok I will do that. It’s about as big around as a silver dollar? It’s a little bigger than I would like it to be but hey, I gotta start somewhere, right? Lol!
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