Loxosceles Heineken & Lowe in Lowe 1835:321 (Sicariidae): Etymology: New Latin, from the Greek adjective loxos ("slanting, crosswise, oblique") + the Greek combining form -skeles (from skelos, "leg"). These combine to form the Greek adjective  loxoskeles, meaning "with slanted legs".

The name is a reference to the observable fact that the legs of Loxosceles spiders are slightly laterigrade (running sidewise, or characterized by such running). In fact, spiders in the genus Loxosceles, when at rest, typically position their legs so that they are bowed sharply, with (when viewed frontally) their femurs in a vertical plane, and (when viewed laterally) their femurs angled posteriorly; by way of contrast, the tibiae of each leg are held horizontally, with the metatarsi and tarsi angled anteriorly, with none forward of the spider's chelicerae. This gives the resting spider a crab-like appearance suggestive of sidewise locomotion. A sister genus within the family Sicariidae (described briefly in the next paragraph), the Sicarius, is in fact so crablike--in appearance and ambulation--that it resembles the typical crab spiders of the family Thomisidae. The Loxosceles, though, actually ambulate like ordinary spiders.

Spiders in this genus are members of the family Sicariidae (formerly, Loxoscellidae). This family has two genera, Sicarius (six-eyed desert crab spiders that are restricted to portions of South America, Africa, and the Galapagos Islands), and Loxosceles, which is distributed worldwide. The venom produced by these spiders is considered dangerous to man.

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