Can you please ID this one for me? :)

[JemGirl]

I found him on my headboard already dead this morning. (4-6-12)
I live in Eastern TN (Knoxville)
Thanks a lot!

[Mandy]

Hi, JemGirl, welcome to the new forum!

After death, spiders dry out, making their abdomen shrivel and become almost impossible to identify using regular images... so all I can really say about this one is that it's probably a male "cobweb spider" in the family Theridiidae. It's definitely not anything considered dangerously venomous to people, though, in case that was an unspoken question.

You might google "male Steatoda grossa," actually. It somewhat resembles one of those. They're nicknamed "false black widows" and are found in your state (they're part of the family Theridiidae).

Sorry we couldn't get a more definite ID for you. Too tough on the shriveled fellas.

[JemGirl]

Yeah, sorry about that shriveled abdomen.
But ya know, I think you pegged it despite that!
I do have a lot of those spiders around here but this one looked a bit different so I wanted to check to be sure and couldn't remember their name anyway.

For some reason I have a lot of this type of spider in my house all the time.
Is that common for them to such active house spiders?

Thanks a lot!!!

Hi, JemGirl, welcome to the new forum!

After death, spiders dry out, making their abdomen shrivel and become almost impossible to identify using regular images... so all I can really say about this one is that it's probably a male "cobweb spider" in the family Theridiidae. It's definitely not anything considered dangerously venomous to people, though, in case that was an unspoken question.

You might google "male Steatoda grossa," actually. It somewhat resembles one of those. They're nicknamed "false black widows" and are found in your state (they're part of the family Theridiidae).

Sorry we couldn't get a more definite ID for you. Too tough on the shriveled fellas.

[Mandy]

Woohoo! Lucky guess with the Steatoda grossa! Although, they are a common house spider, so I suppose it was a logical guess. I have a lot of them in my house, too. They're a European import and most imported species are ones that live in close-quarters with humans and get accidentally transported. I find them outdoors sometimes, but usually still on or around man-made things, like wood sheds or garages, etc. Females rarely leave their web, but males leave and wander for mates once they reach adulthood... so Mr. Shrivels there probably just ran out of gas and died of old age either after mating or on his trek to do so. It only takes a day or two for the abdomen to shrivel like that, so he's somewhat fresh.

Oh, just remembered we actually have an info page for this species: http://www.spiders.us/species/steatoda-grossa/. We'll have more images up soon; right now it only shows the adult female (which looks pretty much nothing like the adult male).

[JemGirl]

He he, yeah great job!!!

LOL!!! Mr. Shrivels!
Cool, thanks a lot for the info and the link btw. I'll definitely check it out!

It's funny how sometimes their abdomens can have crazy designs on them.
I have a picture I took of one a while back that after viewing the pic I noticed it looked just like Jack Skellington's face was on his abdomen! lol

Woohoo! Lucky guess with the Steatoda grossa! Although, they are a common house spider, so I suppose it was a logical guess. I have a lot of them in my house, too. They're a European import and most imported species are ones that live in close-quarters with humans and get accidentally transported. I find them outdoors sometimes, but usually still on or around man-made things, like wood sheds or garages, etc. Females rarely leave their web, but males leave and wander for mates once they reach adulthood... so Mr. Shrivels there probably just ran out of gas and died of old age either after mating or on his trek to do so. It only takes a day or two for the abdomen to shrivel like that, so he's somewhat fresh.

Oh, just remembered we actually have an info page for this species: http://www.spiders.us/species/steatoda-grossa/. We'll have more images up soon; right now it only shows the adult female (which looks pretty much nothing like the adult male).

[Mandy]

Glad we could help! Yep, spiders can have some pretty wild patterns, that's for sure. I think the most memorable one for me was someone else's images of the abdomen on an Ocrepeira. It looked exactly like a man's face; really creepy! It was even flesh-colored and had a mustache, eye brows, everything.

(Actually, I bet you could find it in google if you search "Man-faced Ocrepeira." It's wild and worth a look!)

[JemGirl]

HA HA HA! Oh wow, yes I saw it on a google image search, that is disturbing!
Maybe it was a halloween costume? lol

[Mandy]

Haha! "Mommy, I wanna be a human for Halloween this year! Bobby's mom let him dress as Jack Skellington!" :P