The black widow is an orb web web sort of spider. I've seen them around, and I had to kill one on the back porch a few years back. She was doing a favor of eating fire ants but I had toddlers. One of these large ones has a build like a black widow but not the web. They're all spanning large areas of spider real estate. Two are a lighter brown color spider with large abdomens, one is very dark, so I'll take a flashlight out tonight and take a closer look. The huge one out front is something else. I just pulled out my Texas Bug Book by Howard Garrett (thanks kids! It was a christmas gift last year) and see that she is an Argiope. And while I was at it I read a little about the black widow and the brown recluse. You may want to think twice next time you're killing off mud dauber wasps--they prey heavily on black widows. And I'll be careful as I clean the clutter out of my sun room. It's probably more dangerous in the house than out as far as brown recluses (where I've been weeding the grass from under shrubs. I'll go back to wearing gloves to do that).

SRS