California Brown recluse?!

[NYAN]

Is this the single individual who is responsible for the thousands of diagnosed bites every year and the mass hysteria akin to zombie Godzilla?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/10135960
Jokes aside, is this loxosceles reclusa or perhaps is it laeta? I am aware that latea has been found and apparently is somewhat established in the area. My other question is how can you tell the different species of loxosceles apart besides the range where they were found.

 

[Ungoliant]

Is this the single individual who is responsible for the thousands of diagnosed bites every year and the mass hysteria akin to zombie Godzilla?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/10135960
Jokes aside, is this loxosceles reclusa or perhaps is it laeta? I am aware that latea has been found and apparently is somewhat established in the area.

Most of the "brown recluse bites" outside of the known range of Loxosceles reclusa are misdiagnosed. (While there are other species of recluse, most of them live in places where human encounters are rare.)

My other question is how can you tell the different species of loxosceles apart besides the range where they were found.

Practically speaking, you would consider the location where the spider is found. But if you were not going to consider range, distinguishing between different species may require a key and a microscope. (This is common for species-level and sometimes even genus-level identification of spiders.)

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Richard Vetter wrote an awesome book called "The Brown Recluse" which answers all of the questions here and provides an identification key to the more common recluse spiders (genus Loxoceles) found in the USA. He also provides a key on how to tell Loxoceles laeta found in California from the domestic species. Look for it on Amazon.

 

[NYAN]

Most of the "brown recluse bites" outside of the known range of Loxosceles reclusa are misdiagnosed. (While there are other species of recluse, most of them live in places where human encounters are rare.)




Practically speaking, you would consider the location where the spider is found. But if you were not going to consider range, distinguishing between different species may require a key and a microscope. (This is common for species-level and sometimes even genus-level identification of spiders.)

Most of the "brown recluse bites" outside of the known range of Loxosceles reclusa are misdiagnosed. (While there are other species of recluse, most of them live in places where human encounters are rare.)

Oh yes, I am very aware that almost all the bites outside their range are misdiagnosed and are skin conditions usually or infection. I was making a joke about it all being that one spider. Makes sense you would need a microscope actually.