Black Widow Spider
I took this picture of a black widow spider in September, 1998 with an Olympus D-200L Digital Camera in high resolution macro mode. One of my fellow teachers caught this lady and brought her to school ALIVE. I felt that the safe thing to do was to put the spider in alcohol, then place it on a sheet of typing paper for contrast. The blue in the background comes from the camera flash. The red hourglass turned orange from being in the alcohol for a few days. I have a large collection of preserved black widows that was started as far back as the early 1980s. I have collected most of them myself using extreme caution. This activity is reserved for the borderline insane.
To find them, I usually look around concrete blocks near the ground. They must be able to escape predators such as birds. They are very sensitive to vibrations and will take cover quickly. Their webs are randomly shaped (cobwebs) and not well maintained. The web is quite strong.
ronaldpatterson@windstream.net