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
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.
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.
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.
Ok a Brown recluse Spider. AKA The Fiddle Back Spider
1. Has a fiddle on its back. Very easily seen and is unmistakably a fiddle
2. Are small and reclusive. You won’t see one crawling around the outside of your house
3. The Brown recluse Spider is NOT native to the southwest.
So, relax more than likely you will see a Wolf, Grass or Crevice spiders any where in Las Vegas. And due to the fact that they all look very much alike, they are all harmless.
Black Widows, are the other common spider in the Vegas Valley
Thanks so much for the nice explanation.
Ok a Brown recluse Spider. AKA The Fiddle Back Spider
1. Has a fiddle on its back. Very easily seen and is unmistakably a fiddle
2. Are small and reclusive. You won’t see one crawling around the outside of your house
3. The Brown recluse Spider is NOT native to the southwest.
So, relax more than likely you will see a Wolf, Grass or Crevice spiders any where in Las Vegas. And due to the fact that they all look very much alike, they are all harmless.
Black Widows, are the other common spider in the Vegas Valley
I live in Reno/Sun valley Nevada. And the other day in Sun valley I came across a big spider that had long tentacles and it was light brown and hair on it’s legs with a bit of a long body frame. The legs where very thin and it was hanging or sitting upside down on the ceiling of our screened in front porch. What kind of spider could this have been?
If you get and image, you may submit it using the Ask What’s That Bug? link on our site.