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Goody,I am finding lots of black widows too. I found one with an egg sac recently. I had to relocate the egg sac,unfortunately. It was in our front entrance.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/117...
I've found that invertebrate populations fluctuate at times and they are cyclical. If the prey types are numerous, then the predators bump up in numbers as well. It makes sense when you think about it. If resources are plentiful, then there is more survivorship. Next year you might not see a single widow. :-)
I don't know what the deal is this year. I've found several juveniles brown in color and a female. Never seen so many.
I agree with Coastal. It looks like an immature female but the other side is where the ID lies. :-)
Well, after looking at a few other references it could be a northern. They can reach as far as Florida and overlap range. Only other way to tell is flip her over a check out the hour glass but that's risky.
Pretty sure it's a Black Widow. I've read it can also have some white stripes on the side, usually with more juvenile spiders. This is a great picture!