Stop Calling Every Brown Spider a Brown Recluse
If you live on the east coast, west coast, or any of these large square states, you almost certainly didn’t see the deadly brown recluse in your basement that time. If you know someone who has been bitten by one, chances are good that they are not . Even in hermitage, the chances are slim.
Part of the confusion is that the real brown recluse is so unassuming. We all recognize a black widow when we see one: black with a rounded belly, and countless cartoons have taught us to look for a red hourglass on her belly (if we dare to get that close). But the main characteristic of the brown recluse is that it is brown. Helpful Hint: Many spiders are brown.
The true brown hermit spiders, Loxosceles reclusa , live in the southern United States, in the area shown in the map below.
The top card is a good rule of thumb; the bottom four charts are taken from in-depth studies to refine the range. They were collected in a study published in PLOS ONE , which later in the article concludes that brown hermits are likely to move north with climate change. South Dakota, Michigan, New York and parts of New England may have their own brown recluses by 2020, while Texas may be without hermits.
But at the moment, many spiders and spider bites are misidentified. A true brown recluse, according to spider expert Rick Vetter , has the following characteristics:
- Six eyes are arranged in pairs, one pair in front and a pair on the sides.
- Dark violin shape on the cephalothorax.
- Evenly light legs – no stripes or stripes.
- An evenly colored belly that can range from cream to dark brown depending on what he ate, however, he will never have two pigment colors at the same time.
- There are no thorns on the legs, only fine hairs
- Hermits weave small nets for retreat behind objects rather than outdoors.
- Its length is about 3/8 inch.
Just being brown doesn’t solve it. The shape of the violin is not only one, because many spiders have footprints that look like a violin. You must look this little creature in the eye and count them. Most other spiders have eight eyes, arranged in two rows of four.
Still stumped? Send your photo to Twitter @RecluseOrNot in Twitter , and spiders experts will help you. They see lots of Daddy’s leggy, basement spiders, vagabond spiders and wolf spiders big and hairy, and you’re 100 percent entitled to scream a little if someone sneaks up on you.