Black Widow Spiderlings

The other day, I went for a walk at Bolsa Chica, and I found this tiny spider living in under a curled up piece of bark. It was a pretty little thing, all marbled brown and white. I could tell it was a Theriid, and was pretty happy with myself for that, but otherwise, I had no idea.

Turns out it's a widow spiderling. Baby black widows really aren't black. Looking at the pictures up here, on bugguide, it looks like male black widows aren't always, either.

And looking at my own pictures, I'm no longer sure whether Milady is a black widow or a brown. This identification business is confusing.

Oh, and someone gave me a link to a site on black widows and the way to tell the difference between widows and steatoda. I'm still figuring it out. Anyway, the site is here. Since it seems all of the Theriids hurt when they bite, and it's generally a good idea anyway, my policy is "look but don't touch," for all spiders.