# biggest brown recluse i've ever seen



## evilebe (Mar 30, 2012)

the other day i found a spider in my bathroom. i caught it and have had it on a shelf for a few days. i thought that it was a brown recluse but it is so small it was hard to see the mark on it's back.

here's a picture of it:



well, i was watching some tarantula videos on youtube and i saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. mom was out and about and i had no idea a brown recluse could get this big. 




i guess it's a female. anybody know how to sex a brown recluse? is this size normal?


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## Ciphor (Mar 30, 2012)

evilebe said:


> the other day i found a spider in my bathroom. i caught it and have had it on a shelf for a few days. i thought that it was a brown recluse but it is so small it was hard to see the mark on it's back.
> 
> here's a picture of it:
> View attachment 101291
> ...


Couple things.

1) Neither of those spiders look like a brown recluse.
2) How are you trying to ID the spider? 133 species of spider have similar violin patterns on their carapace. You need to look at the eyes. 6 eyes, 8 eyes? 
3) What do you actually have there? First spider looks like its in the family Pimoidae, even tho I don't think they are found in LA so I'm probably wrong. The second image looks like a male _Kukulcania hibernalis_ which are often mistaken for brown recluse spiders. It should have enlarged pedipalps

Pimoidae: http://bugguide.net/node/view/346803/bgimage
Kukulcania hibernalis male: http://bugguide.net/node/view/47644/bgimage
Brown Recluse: http://bugguide.net/node/view/478375 (note, it has 6 eyes in a very specific configuration)

Remember, they were not given the name "Recluse" just for the heck of it. They tend to stay hidden and out of sight. If your seeing the spider just hanging out, it's already pretty likely not a brown a recluse.


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## Thomas2015 (Mar 30, 2012)

Not sure what the top one is (definitely not a brown recluse) but the bottom one is a Southern House Spider.


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## evilebe (Mar 30, 2012)

wow. really? well i guess i can't say i've ever seen a brown recluse. i thought they were common in louisiana.

---------- Post added 03-30-2012 at 09:18 PM ----------

now that i look online, i guess you're right. neither of those spiders bear any resemblance to a brown recluse what so ever.


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## Thomas2015 (Mar 30, 2012)

They may or may not be. A lot of the range maps you see online for brown recluses are completely bogus. Ciphor is right however: one of the major things about a brown recluse is that it is a recluse. It tends to hide extremely well. The other thing is that there are literally dozens of spiders with the fiddle marking on the back. If you really want to identify a brown recluse, look at the eyes. A brown recluse will have six eyes in three sets of two, shaped in a triangle with the point on the bottom. They are extremely tough to identify: I've had dozens of people come to me with "brown recluses" that weren't. Still have never seen one.


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## Ciphor (Mar 30, 2012)

Oklahoma is the recluse hotbed. LA not as much, though you do have them. They are very reclusive (hense brown *recluse*)

A home in Texas had over 2000 brown recluse spiders removed over a 6 month period. The family living there never got bit by a single one, and never even so much as saw a one.


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## Low (Mar 30, 2012)

This is true, they are all over the place here in oklahoma...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk


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## pitbulllady (Mar 31, 2012)

The first pic is WAY to blurry for me to be able to tell exactly what it is, but it appears to have an abdominal pattern, which a Brown Recluse does NOT have, and it seems to be one of those spiders that build aerial webs, which Brown Recluses don't build.  As for the second one, it's definitely a male _Kukulcania hibernalis_, a docile and harmless species very common throughout the South.

pitbulllady


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## loxoscelesfear (Mar 31, 2012)

i remember an episode of billy the exterminator where he rid a LA cabin of "brown recluse."  silly bastard was killing southern house spiders.  there are recluse in LA,  more so in northern LA.  recluse do not fair well in coastal areas.  range maps for L. reclusa are accurate, it is a spider of the central US.  Additional species of Loxosceles do occur in the southwest, but they are not the species reclusa.  The Mediterranean recluse Loxosceles rufescens can turn up anywhere in the U.S.


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## Thomas2015 (Mar 31, 2012)

What's really funny is that there have been over 140 diagnosed BRS bites in Florida in the last six years . . . and in the ENTIRE HISTORY of Florida, only 11 BRSs have ever been found, mostly in the far western counties. We have more bites than we do spiders. This can be considered when thinking that there are many mid-western households with over a thousand spiders and never have a problem the entire time they live there. These spiders really are the ultimate scapegoat. 

A good source: Causes of Necrotic Wounds other than Brown Recluse Spider Bites

by Rick Vetter, M.S.


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## The Snark (Apr 1, 2012)

Thomas2015 said:


> What's really funny is that there have been over 140 diagnosed BRS bites in Florida in the last six years . . . and in the ENTIRE HISTORY of Florida, only 11 BRSs have ever been found, mostly in the far western counties. We have more bites than we do spiders. This can be considered when thinking that there are many mid-western households with over a thousand spiders and never have a problem the entire time they live there. These spiders really are the ultimate scapegoat.


You didn't take into account the other possibility: A serial people zapping recluse. A loner and outcast during it's formative years contributing to it developing covert hostility. It must have it's own transportation, probably an SUV, spends time plotting it's next attack in a shack in the woods, and most likely has severe antisocial tendencies and needs professional help. 
HEY! This is just as likely as any other explanation for all those alleged bites!

Reactions: Like 2


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## HoboAustin (Apr 1, 2012)

Low said:


> This is true, they are all over the place here in oklahoma...


It's nice to see another local on the boards 

As for the OP even if those aren't brown recluses, I still wouldn't enjoy finding a spider that big near me that's not in a container. If I was you, I'd give them a little set up and keep them


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## cacoseraph (Apr 1, 2012)

this should be a Loxosceles species, but definitely not reclusa.  i just caught it tonight so i need to figure out what it is still



here is the eye arrangement that all but guarantees it is Loxo.   it is the famous triple dyad (three pairs of eyes, six total) arrangment   If you catch a spider and it does not have this eye arrangement i believe that means it can not be Loxosceles.  Loxo eyes are pretty small, so you need a fairly large specimen to be able to see them w/o taking a picture or using a magnifier (or taking a pic *using* a magnifier as i did here)


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## evilebe (Apr 2, 2012)

*thanks for the replies*

thanks for all of the information. i'm getting a couple more t's this week and needed the container i was planning on using for one of them so i ended up letting the big one go.  i didn't really want it anyway.


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## Ciphor (Apr 2, 2012)

cacoseraph said:


> this should be a Loxosceles species, but definitely not reclusa.  i just caught it tonight so i need to figure out what it is still
> 
> 
> 
> here is the eye arrangement that all but guarantees it is Loxo.   it is the famous triple dyad (three pairs of eyes, six total) arrangment   If you catch a spider and it does not have this eye arrangement i believe that means it can not be Loxosceles.  Loxo eyes are pretty small, so you need a fairly large specimen to be able to see them w/o taking a picture or using a magnifier (or taking a pic *using* a magnifier as i did here)


Tough to separate _L. arizonica_ from _L. deserta_?


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## cacoseraph (Apr 2, 2012)

it is when you haven't looked them up =P  they might have different leg length ratios... luckily she's got a full four on *one* side =P


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