Recluse Spider--Tom S., Austin, TX: (see also a recluse spider found in Wichita Falls, compared with a southern house spider.) This photograph was sent in on 120908. With his photos of a green lynx spider, Tom mentioned that his wife had found a recluse spider in a box of blankets stored in the garage, and offered to provide photos. In 28 years of collecting spiders in Central Texas, I've never found a recluse here, so I was impatient to see Tom's photo. That photo, at right, is of a brown spider in the genus Loxosceles. Note the flat, pear-shaped (pyriform) carapace; a hirsute pars cephalica that is darker than the glabrous pars thoracica, the latter divided by a dark, longitudinal, thoracic furrow so that the pars cephalica and  thoracic furrow make a fiddle-shaped marking on the carapace; a brown, unmarked dorsal abdomen; and long, slender legs of roughly equal lengths, bereft of spines, drawn back and slanting to the sides when the spider is at rest. The generic name, Loxosceles*, refers to equal, slanting legs. An enlargement of the anterior pars cephalica shows six small, cryptic eyes in three diads (pairs) obscured by cephalic  hairs. This may well be a brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa). At least thirteen species of Loxosceles spiders are found North America, and they are best distinguished via microscopic analysis of their internal genitalia. (*see Ubick et al, [2005], p. 222-223, 303) ---- NEXT PAGE ----- PAGE MENU: 1 * 2 * ----- * TERMITE ENCOUNTERS  *  SNAKE ENCOUNTERS * SNAKE BITE FIRST AID * SNAKE EXCLUSION * SPIDER ENCOUNTERS FOR 2008 *  SPIDER ENCOUNTERS FOR 2007 * 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 * --0a0s--