Northern Black Widow, Carden Alvar

[Poropat/Fraser]

I know...not an ode or lep, but...

 

Last night, my daughter and I explored the Carden alvar.  While flipping rocks for snakes, we were very excited to discover a gorgeous female Northern Black Widow.  It was a first for Ontario for both of us.

 

We also found 6 species of snakes in about 45 min of looking, despite the cool temps.

 

Cheers,

 

Ed Poropat,

Haliburton, ON

[james holdsworth]

Ed,

I have found a couple of Widows in the Seabright area. I talked with Jeff Skevington [expert entomologist] and he told me this species is actually quite common in parts of central Ontario.

That was certainly news to me, and I took quite a bit more care with fingertip placement when rock-flipping thereafter!

Cheers,

[suth...@gmail.com]

Ed et al.,

Well known from Bruce Peninsula (Dyer's Bat area) east through southern Parry Sound (Point au Baril), Haliburton (Minden) to at least Hastings (Madoc). There are specimens from Carden.

Don

Sent from my iPhone

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[suth...@gmail.com]

I'm standing in a clear cut near Gogama right now and there's limited cell service, but will get back to you with more details when I get home next week. 

Don

Sent from my iPhone

On 2013-06-05, at 8:00 AM, Poropat/Fraser <ed....@sympatico.ca> wrote:

--

[Maxim Larrivée]

Hi Ed et al., I was aware of a record of Latrodectus variolus (Northern Black Widow) from Belleville but not any further. We received a specimen collected outside near the Ontario border in a small Québec town and we intend to do some intensive search in the coming weeks.

I would not be surprised that it is actually all the way up to Ottawa now and along the Eardley escarpment in Gatineau park.

Keep your eyes out!

Six species of snake, that's fantastic. Did you get the ever so beautiful Eastern Milky Snake?

Best,

Max.

[Mark Conboy]

We have a small population of northern widows at Queen's University
Biological Station, located between Kingston and Ottawa. See here for
more information on the spiders at QUBS:

http://opinicon.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/northern-widows-at-qubs/

Mark

Mark Andrew Conboy
Operations & Research Assistant and Outreach Coordinator
Queen’s University Biological Station
280 Queen's University Road
Elgin, Ontario, Canada K0G 1E0
phone: 613-359-5629
fax: 613-533-6617
email: mark....@queensu.ca or mco...@lakeheadu.ca
QUBS website: http://www.queensu.ca/qubs/index.html
QUBS blog: http://opinicon.wordpress.com/
QUBS flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qubsoutreach/

[ROBERT BOWLES]

I have several records for Northern Black Widows with photos from the Orillia, Barrie, Carden and Gravenhurst area and usually find from 3-5 individuals each season. I have several close up photos showing the identification details from over the last 15 years.

Milksnake is a fairly common species on the Carden Alvar and I find them every year plus more road kills now with the increased birding traffic. Smooth Green Snake is another common snake for this area.

 

Bob Bowles

Orillia, Ontario

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