This had to be the biggest southern black widow female (Latrodectus mactans) I've ever seen! I almost grabbed her on accident when reaching down into one of the aquifer monitoring wells I check in the field. I carefully removed her with a small stick and placed her into a safe container to take her with me to my last site of that day that's in a more remote location. Now she won't be in a position to accidentally bite a human or be squished by one and I got some neat pictures, so it's a win all around 😊
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