Black Widow Spider (Latrodectus Mactans)

Here are several pics of this cobweb weaver. It often builds a tangly and sticky web from holes or cracks in the walls. It can live in abandoned burrows or other dry hideouts. It has well adapted to the new megopoli and can be found through much of the Los Angeles basin. There's at least 2 of these around here. One has a complete hour glass and the other a broken hour glass. They usually live to one year (some live longer). They may feed on hundreds of insects in that year. A female will mate in the autumn with the much tinier male. After mating most of the time she will eat her mate; hence the spider's name. Females to 3/4 inch long and males multi colored (with hourglasses) to 1/4 inch long. They can have maybe a good 25-40 cream colored eggsacs containing hundreds of spiderlings. In the food web most of the spiderlings don't make it. They leave the mother's web probably within a month and some have been known to "balloon" in the wind to start a web in a new location. This spider will attack and enmesh much larger prey with its silk. Maybe 12 kinds of widows in the US probably more across the globe.