What is a Recluse Spider?

Common names: brown spiders, violin spiders, and brown recluse spiders

          Recluse spiders are cloaked in mystery and intrigue. They are regularly blamed for virulent, progressive skin infections, yet recluse venom produces a generally self-limiting local necrosis. Many assume every brown spider found in the home is a recluse, though most other spiders are brown, too. A spider with a mark remotely like a violin confirms their fears, yet such marks are found everywhere in nature, while recluse spiders are rarely found outside their normal ranges. Then, again, within that normal range, recluse spiders sometimes abound. Sometimes their bites produce horrible, disfiguring wounds.

          As I write this a live spider is sitting in a glass jar next to my keyboard. I picked it up from Tom S., on 1 April 2009, out at Lake Travis. His wife found it last year in a box of blankets in their garage and correctly identified it. She'd found, and killed, another one earlier; this one she saved for Tom to look at. He emailed me, without sending a photo, and I was skeptical. I'd never found a brown recluse anywhere in Central Texas, though I've been collecting spiders from all over Texas for nearly 30 years. Then he sent a photo, and my skepticism evaporated.

          All the evidence suggests that this brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa) is a Travis County native, not an import from the U.S. heartland where such spiders are common. I have to revise my opinion on the existence of brown recluse spiders in this locale. But what direction should that revision take? That's an important question. Before going there, let's dig into the basics on spiders in general. 

Page 2: Spider Taxonomy 1 -- Page Menu:   1  *  2  *  3  *  4  *

SNAKE ENCOUNTERS * SNAKE BITE FIRST AID * SNAKE EXCLUSION * SPIDER ENCOUNTERS * SPIDER BITE FIRST AID * SPIDER EXTERMINATION * PUSS CATERPILLAR ENCOUNTERS * PUSS CATERPILLAR FIRST AID * PUSS CATERPILLAR EXTERMINATION * Assembled & Edited by Jerry Cates. Questions? Corrections? Comments? BUG ME RIGHT NOW! ---- Ph: 512-331-1111 ---- E-Mail ---- Privacy ---- BugsInTheNews