Brown Recluse Spider

Her photos of a little tan spider posted on the Old Old Lady of the Hills's blog today have drawn many comments.

A couple of them talked about whether the wee spider was actually--there's your grandson's favorite word again, other Naomi--a brown recluse, that shy little spider from central and northern Illinois and central and southern Iowa whose bite can be very nasty--like, it rots your flesh. Ergh!

I was concerned when I first saw the color and rather elongated profile of the spider, but then I wasn't too concerned about it until someone else mentioned having the same thoughts. So, having acquired, among other things, an undergraduate degree in biology in my eclectic existence, I was curious and looked it up.

HERE is a fabulous website with lots of information about the brown recluse spider.

After studying this website for a while, it seems fairly clear that OOLOTH's photogenic little arachnid is probably NOT a recluse, although I can't tell for sure.

The one photo that shows the spider's back clearly doesn't really show whether it carries the recluse's trademark dark brown violin shape on the cephalothorax (fancy scientic term, which most of us biologists will recognize right off).

It MAY be a Cheiracanthium, which the website shows and describes as a very pale greenish or yellowish spider with...tada...black feet! It may be scratches on my glasses, but it seems as if OOLOTH's little spider does have dark feet.

Who knew? One learns something new every day.

How to avoid the bites of these spiders? The website says don't put your hands or feet into anything dark that has been sitting around undisturbed for a long time. Like gloves or boots or shoes that have been lying around in the back of the closet (see "Hats, Gloves, and Scarves" on Red Nose. Not that she has spiders in her closet, but it's a good idea to get in there and straighten things out now and then.)

Brown recluse spiders don't build webs, they're very shy, they don't JUMP, they're not hairy...they just kind of wimp around in dark places hoping something to eat will pass by REALLY CLOSE.