Black widow (Latrodectus mactans)
<p>Orange County has a lot of spiders, most of which seem to live in and around our house.  We have more than our share of Black Widows, mostly in the garden and in our garage.  They frighten me on a very basic level, so getting close enough to take a picture was a minor act of bravery.
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Sadly, I couldn't get a great picture of this one in our garage.  I had to turn the ISO way up and the flash down to get anything approaching the correct color and focus.  The result is grainy, but it was the best I could do in low light conditions.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/20868483@N00">tinyfroglet</a>
CC BY 2.0
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