Subject: Spider at my work
Location: Belle chasse louisiana
October 10, 2012 9:28 pm
I found this little guy amongst 100s of others the same size and bigger at my work. They are under an overhang shelter to an old bombshell bunker that i had to hose the nest and webs off from hanging. Theres plenty of lights that constantly stay on under there. And these critters are couped up in small round tunnel webs and balls of a messy webbing. Im wondering what they are and if they are poisonous. They are pretty big up to 2 1/2 inches including the leg length.
Signature: Keith64

Female Crevice Weaver Spider

Hi Keith64,
This is a female Crevice Weaver Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis, and you can compare your photo to this image on BugGuide.  According to BugGuide:  “Females are frequently mistaken for small tarantulas or trapdoor spiders. Males are often mistaken for recluse spiders (Loxosceles). This is a totally harmless species that builds ‘messy’ webs emanating from crevices, often on the outside of homes.”  Eric Eaton has an excellent blog posting on Crevice Weaver Spiders on Bug Eric.

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should we be concerned?
Location: found in my pourch light of my home in myrtle beach south carolina
April 11, 2012 1:05 am
Hello i noticed movement inside the light fixture on my front porch when investigating i found this lil guy not sure if it is native to where i live which is myrtle beach SC also not sure if i should be worried of how dangerous it could be i did not have the heart to kill it so i took it for a walk across the st from my house and set it free in a tree it is about thr size of a half dollar black and gray in color inside the light fixture was also a web a bunch of little dead bugs and even what looked like the dead carcus of another spider please help me identify this spider and everything about it thanks
Signature: Eric

Crevice Weaver Spider

Dear Eric,
Despite its frightening appearance, you don’t need to be concerned.  This is a female Crevice Weaver Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis, which we identified on BugGuide.  According to BugGuide:  “Females are frequently mistaken for small tarantulas or trapdoor spiders. Males are often mistaken for recluse spiders (Loxosceles). This is a totally harmless species that builds “messy” webs emanating from crevices, often on the outside of homes.”

Crevice Weaver Spider

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recluse or wolf spiders?
Location: Las Vegas nevada
November 21, 2010 10:05 am
I seen many spiders around my home when since my family and I moved in two years ago. My husband thought they were wolf spiders and told me not to worry so I wasn’t to concerned about them.
Recently I’ve seen pictures of both the recluse and wolf spiders and now I’m confused as to what mine are.
I’m concerned for the safety of my kids since there are such a large number of them.
I try to grab my camera every time I see an interesting or scary bug. I’ve got pictures of different spiders, they might not even be the same species.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Signature: Thank You (your bug-a-phobic friend) Emm

Male Crevice Weaver Spider, not Recluse Spider?

Dear Emm,
Only one of the spider images you attached is a Recluse Spider, and since the quality of that image is different, we are surmising that perhaps you didn’t even take that photo, though your email does not indicate that.  We will attempt to identify your other spiders.

Female Crevice Weaver Spider, we believe

Update/Correction
Hi again Emm,
Now we are having second thoughts.  We believe all of your spiders Crevice Weaver spiders in the genus Kukulcania, possibly the Southern House Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis.  The lighter colored one with the longer legs looks just like a male Southern House Spider posted to BugGuide.  The other specimens look like females that are posted to BugGuide.  We would encourage anyone reading to confirm or correct this identification.

Female Crevice Weaver Spider, we believe

Eric Eaton Concurs
Hi, Daniel:
… Well, it is definitely a species of Kukulcania, but I don’t think that species (K. hibernalis) ranges into Nevada.  Likely a different species.
Eric

Update from Emm
I took all the photo’s myself. The first photo was of a spider that was inside my home. I took that picture after putting the spider inside a plastic container, that’s why the quality looks different. the other spiders were all outside and  I took the photo’s from a distance.
I wasn’t aware that I could identify the spiders by their eye configurations. next time I’ll know where to point the camera. I read that recluse spiders don’t have fine hairs on their legs and it’s easy to see that there is hair on the legs of my spider which leaves me to believe that you correctly identified mine to be house spiders.
I know now not to do an image search to help me identify insects. the results were very misinforming
I appreciate all your help.  If you’re interested I have photo’s of other insects, most of the pictures are in good quality. the photo’s are of aphids, a June beetle, an adult and a juvenile praying mantis, a male carpenter bee and a beetle. I’m unaware of the exact species but it’s bigger than my hand. I took pictures of it from where it was when I first seen it and then took more pictures of it while it was in a container. .  if you’d like to see them let me know. I’m not a photographer but I think some of them are good shots
Thank You for all your help; Emm
p.s.  All of the bugs that I’ve captured were taken away from my house and set free. I don’t kill them.

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Brown Recluse?
March 29, 2010
We found this spider in Cleveland, Texas this past February while cleaning out a neglected bookshelf. It was between the books in a rather disorderly looking web. The house it was found in is in a wooded area. We’ve been keeping it in a container with wound wire for observation since, and it has established an intricate, cob-webby web between the wires and is living on a steady diet of mosquito hawks and silverfish. We’ve done a lot of image searching for an identity, but the closest we can find is that it’s a brown recluse. However, it lacks a distinct violin marking (although a dark line similar to the violin neck runs down the cephalothorax), the pedipalps are much more defined and less tufty, and the legs seem to be less spindly. We haven’t been able to get a coun t on the eyes, as they’re a bit hard to see. We’ve noticed some small indentions in pairs on the dorsal side of the abdomen, no idea what those are. If its behavior is of any help, we’ve noticed that it cuts its finished prey from its web to let it fall (although perhaps that’s common in spiders). Any help would be much appreciated! Also, if you happen to know, we’d love to know what those indentions are (pictured in photo 3)! Thanks very much.
Laura and Michael
Cleveland, Texas

Crevice Weaver Spider

Dear Laura and Michael,
You may rest assured that this is not a Brown Recluse.  It is a Crevice Weaver Spider in the genus Kukulcania, and it is well represented on BugGuide.  According to BugGuide:  “These spiders create a tube-like retreat in cracks.   This spider varies greatly in color from light brown to dark black. Females are generally grey to black while the males are tan. Males look very similar to the Recluse spiders, except they have much longer pedipalps, eight eyes (not six as in the Recluse family), and very long front legs.“  It is our opinion that your specimen is a female.

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Trapdoor Spider with Young?
January 31, 2010
Tearing down a shed in South Goergia I found her with hatchlings. I laid a quarter down next to her for scale. She looked a lot more impressive with he legs stetched out, but still a cool speciman.
Wild Man
South Georgia

Southern House Spider with Spiderlings

Dear Wild Man,
This looks to us like a Southern House Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis, one of the Crevice Weaver Spiders.  According to BugGuide:  “Females are frequently mistaken for small tarantulas or trapdoor spiders. Males are often mistaken for recluse spiders (Loxosceles). This is a totally harmless species that builds ‘messy’ webs emanating from crevices, often on the outside of homes.“ Your photo nicely illustrates the maternal care many spiders exhibit toward their spiderlings.

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Big spider on my door
October 15, 2009
We came home and we went “Eaahh!” There was a huge (2″?) spider on our front door. After some fiddling with our camera we managed to get a couple of half-decent photos of it. We thought it might be the California Trapdoor Spider that some others have met recently, but it’s body isn’t shiny and black and doesn’t quite look the same.
The Gandolfo Family
Hills outside Santa Rosa, Northern California

Crevice Weaver Spider

Dear Gandolfo Family
As much as we would have loved this to be a female California Trapdoor Spider, we believe it is a female Crevice Weaver Spider in the genus Kukulcania.  We found some closely matching images on BugGuide.  One of the postings on BugGuide indicates that individuals in this genus may live for 10 years.  Males are sometimes mistaken for Brown Recluse Spiders.  BugGuide has additional information.  We also are providing a link to images of the female California Trapdoor Spider, though they rarely leave their burrows.

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Larger black and brown spider maybe tarantula
Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 7:50 PM
We live in Dayton Nevada 15 miles from Carson City Nevada. My husband found this spider about 2 weeks ago underneath a board outside. In the last 2 weeks he/she has doubled in size and loves crickets. When we first found him/her was half the size it is now ( body is about 1 inch long and with the legs about an inch and 1/2 long. When we first found him/her it was all black now the rear end of the spider is a silky brown very short hair on the rear end and two back legs, upper part of the body is slick looking as well as the front two sets of legs. It appears that there is a set of eyes in the middle of the head, almost in a prymaid looking area. The spider has very larger feeder arms on the front as well.
The spider really doesn’t make webs, it seems that it only webs so that it can’t eat whatever it has bitten. So is this a baby tarantula? Thanks for your help.
Jennifer DeForest
Dayton Nevada

probably Crevice Weaver Spider

Hi Jennifer,
All of your photos are quite blurry, but we believe this may be a young Tarantula in the genus Aphonopelma since the markings match some images posted to BugGuide. We will contact Eric Eaton to see if he is more certain. Is this spider now being kept in captivity? Are you, by chance, related to our good friend John who is a landscape architect in Laguna?

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:20:17 -0800 (PST)
Daniel:
You aren’t kidding about “blurry.” LOL! Impossible to be certain, but I think that the spider is a “crevice weaver” in the family Filistatidae. They should stop feeding the thing for awhile, too. Spiders are opportunistic predators, and will overeat if fed too regularly (in the wild they don’t know when the next meal is coming).
There are some great images of filistatids over at Bugguide that they can compare to. I’m pretty certain this is not a tarantula.
Eric

UPdate:
Here is an after thought, I was researching on bug guide and I believe now that this is either a trapdoor spider or a Crevice Weavers (Filistatidae) »Kukulcania  I can not tell which. After looking through the pictures and looking at my spider, I see that he has bands on his legs where they attach to the body. I would better describe the hair as velvet looking. I just can not decided which spider he is and if it is a he or a she. I have also noticed he has atleast 1 dimple on his butt, and no spinnerets. I am unsure if either of these spiders are supposed to be in my area.
Thanks for all your help.
Jennifer DeForest

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