Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tdatirv!sarima From: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: Brown Recluse Spiders Message-ID: <145@tdatirv.UUCP> Date: 15 Sep 90 01:05:12 GMT References: <1075.26E7DC9A@ofa123.fidonet.org> <4300@trantor.harris-atd.com> Reply-To: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) Distribution: sci.bio Organization: Teradata Corp., Irvine Lines: 27 In article <4300@trantor.harris-atd.com> trish@trantor.harris-atd.com (Trish Stuckey) writes: > I think I know the ones you talking about. I don't think >they're mean though. They're certainly mean-looking. We call >them (here in Florida) the brown mosquito spider. They are >HUGE, they're a good 6" to 7" across ... > I sprayed 1/2 can of Raid on one of them, he passed out and >about 5 mins. later he got up and walked away. Hmm, sure does sound like wolf spiders to me (or else thier close relatives - the tarantulas). And the original poster is not the only one who has gotten wolf spiders and brown recluses miced up. When I was much younger I used to think the enormously common, somewhat smaller, wolf spider of eastern Kansas was the brown recluse. After all, I had been told how nasty the brown recluse was, and these were the *only* brown spiders I had ever seen. I may not have been fully corrected on this until I took a field natural history class at university. There I got to know spiders quite well. I have also, since then, seen brown recluses. They were rather smallish, non-descript brown spiders huddling under some old boards. (I didn't bother trying to get a closer look the see the 'violin', I didn't relish the idea of getting bitten.) As near as I can tell they are rather similar to black widows in body shape and markings - except for being a very dull color, and *much* smaller. [A black widow is a very stunning black with a distinct red marking]