As if Black Widows weren't enough,now we got Brown widows.

http://news.yahoo.com/black-widow-spiders-may-met-match-134626496.html

No kidding, it's like asking "I wonder why all the man-eating sharks are gone?" without realizing that whatever scared them off - or ate them! - is going to be even worse news for us LOL

Your Black-Widow looks the same as our Red-Back.
The brown ones here are the male species and normally dont get large .. only cause the female sucks the life out of em after mating.
Mmmm ... guess not much difference to our species .. but thats another story.

So don't be afraid ... if there brown, you gotta chance!