The brown recluse is a spider with a necrotic venom (death of skin) and is one of two spiders (the other being the black widow) with medically significant venom in North America.
Brown recluse spiders are usually between 6 and 20 millimetres (0.24 and 0.79 in), but may grow larger. While typically light to medium brown, they range in color from whitish to dark brown or blackish gray. These spiders usually have markings on the dorsal side of their cephalothorax, with a black line coming from it that looks like a violin with the neck of the violin pointing to the rear of the spider, resulting in the nicknames fiddleback spider, brown fiddler, or violin spider.
Brown recluse spiders dwell in dark, sheltered places and can be found in homes, barns and basements. Webs tend to appear disorganized and are built most commonly near ground level. The spider is a hunter, so the web is not intended to catch prey but instead roams around searching for prey. The brown recluse is found in the central southern part of the U.S., from Texas to the western most part of Florida.
Brown recluse spiders are capable of biting when disturbed or threatened. This may occur when a person unknowingly wears an infested piece of clothing or rolls over in his or her sleep. Similarly, brown recluses are known to build their webs in boxes and beneath old furniture; reaching into these areas may result in a bite.
The brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is rumored to be the one of the most poisonous house spiders in the United States. However, although the bite of a brown recluse in rare instances can prove damaging to tissue, a fatality from a brown recluse bite has never been verified.
