I've never seen an adult with the red legs. Was the upper abdominal coloring typical? If not, this could be a very young female. Juveniles are very different looking than the adults.

Great shot.

I was wondering about that too, Dorie. I've only seen one other black widow spider, and I didn't remember the red legs. The first one also had a real round shape in the middle, whereas this one is sort of rectangular. I got a poor picture of the other one several years ago -
{{gwi:468996}}
When I saw her yesterday, she had turned over, and I noticed her topside had red on it. I went outside just a few minutes ago, and she was back in the "belly up" position. I'll try to get a picture of her topside later on when I can - I sure don't want to turn her over!
Sherry

I was wondering about the shape of her abdomen, too. I have seen plenty of BWs with red on the top as well as the underside, but all have really roundish bodies. Maybe I haven't paid attention to what they look like from that angle, other than the hourglass markings.

I can always go out to the garage and find bunch of them to examine. (NOT!)

Dorie
(recovering arachnophobe)