Thank you for your support in 2011!

PDFs will be available toward the end of the summer (neither was available when this website was initially posted in June 2012).  We truly appreciate all the help that we got last year from all you citizen scientists.  It really added a lot of geographic breadth to our study.

2011 Brown Widow Research Results

Last year on this website, we had a request for spiders and egg sacs for two research projects regarding a search for egg sac parasites and to document the microhabitat choices of the brown widow in southern California. This research has resulted in two publications. Your participation was greatly appreciated.

Vetter, R. S., L. S. Vincent, A. A. Itnyre, D. E. Clarke, K. I. Reinker, D. W. R. Danielsen, L. J. Robinson, J. N. Kabashima, and M. K.  Rust. 2012. Predators and parasitoids of egg sacs of the widow spiders, Latrodectus geometricus and Latrodectus hesperus (Araneae: Theridiidae), in southern California. Journal of Arachnology 40:209-214. 

Vetter, R. S., L. S. Vincent, D. W. R. Danielsen, K. I. Reinker, D. E. Clarke, A. A. Itnyre, J. N. Kabashima, and M. K. Rust. 2012. The prevalence of brown widow and black widow spiders (Araneae: Theridiidae) in urban southern California. J. Med. Entomol. 49: xxx-xxx. Available upon request

For information on Summer 2012 Brown Widow research, click here