Brown recluse

 

Brown recluse

The brown recluse is also known as the violin spider, fiddleback, the brown fiddler and  by it’s scientific name Loxosceles reclusa.

The Brown recluse is a member of the family Sicariidae. The common name “brown recluse” is the term used to commonly refer to this spider.

Brown recluse identify

So, how to identify a brown recluse? Brown recluse identification is made by the spiders eye pattern, Brown recluse have a semi circular arrangement of 6 eyes set up in 3 groups of 2 which is unusual to a degree as most other spider species have 8. Many harmless spiders have been dispatched after being mistakenly identified as a brown recluse.

The eye cluster arrangement can be seen in the Brown recluse picture to the left this is a picture of a male brown recluse.

In the mature brown recluse spiders, the dark violin marking is very well defined this can be seen in the picture of brown recluse spider as is with some other species of the recluse spiders. The abdomen is uniformly colored although some of the coloration can range from lightish tan color to dark brown, with Brown recluse spider size they are not particularly big spiders.

In the immature stages of growth the Brown recluse closely resemble that of the adult except for their size and a slightly lighter coloration. The Brown recluse body is about 3/8 inches in length and around 3/16 inches in width.

The long and thin brown legs of the brown recluse are covered with fine hairs, but these are not spines and have a leg span around the size of a quarter, males brown recluse are slightly smaller in body length than the female brown recluse but have longer legs.

Where are brown recluse spider found?

Brown recluse locations

The “brown recluse” refers specifically to the one species of spider that lives in the south central, Midwest United states. It can be found in areas shaded in red on the brown recluse spider distribution map to the left.

The map to the left is only a rough guide to the Brown recluse location map as like dealing with any organism especially one of this size they can end up in all sorts of areas and repopulate when they are unknowingly transported from state to state in all forms of transport.

It is interesting to note that the Brown recluse spider is also found in Australia in the southern state of South Australia, the brown recluse spider has been in Australia for the past 25 odd years to date and there have been no positively identifiable bites attributed to this spider. In Australia they are unheard of

There are 10 native recluse spiders (Loxosceles sp) found in the United states.

Where do Brown recluse spiders live?

Brown recluse spider habitat

The Brown recluse spider is a very solitary spider and prefers isolation in shelters and small cracks and crevices.They will also be found in the house also and information on how to get rid of spiders can be found here they maybe found in

the basement of the house and anywhere it is dark, quite and out of the way where they can live undisturbed.

Other areas you are likely to encounter the Brown recluse are garages, attics, barns, crawl spaces, storage sheds and the list goes on as they will inhabit pretty much anywhere as said where it is dark and quite which can include a huge spectrum of habitats.

For some reason brown recluse seem to prefer anything that is cardboard, probably because it is dry and they prefer a drier habitat. Outdoors the brown recluse spider is found in wood piles, beneath logs, and under loose rocks.The brown recluse web is a disorganized irregular web which frequently include a small shelter consisting of un-arranged fine threads, this would be a good description of a brown recluse spider web.

Brown recluse photos, source wiki