Brown recluse
The brown recluse is a shy brown spider. On its back, near the head, it has a dark mark shaped like a violin. Most spiders have eight eyes, but this one has only six, sitting in three pairs.
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Fun facts
Recluse means someone who likes to hide away, and this spider really is shy.
It can survive up to six months with no food and very little water.
A mother makes several egg sacs, each with about 50 eggs, and the babies take about a year to grow up.
It does not float through the air on silk threads like many baby spiders do, so it spreads very slowly.
Most asked questions about Brown recluse
?How can you tell a brown recluse?
It has six eyes in three pairs and a dark violin shape on its front. Other spiders can have a violin mark too, so the eyes tell you more.
?How big is a brown recluse?
Usually 6 to 20 millimetres long.
Myth buster
Myth: The brown recluse lives all over America, even in California.
Truth: No. It only lives in the middle and south of the United States. Many spiders people think are brown recluses are other, harmless kinds.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Loxosceles reclusa
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Sicariidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Sicariidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Fiddleback spider, Brown fiddler, Violin spider
Where the facts come from
- Brown recluse spider (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Rosa Pineda. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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