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Brown recluse look-alike #430636

Asked October 09, 2017, 7:54 PM EDT

I caught this guy in my home. It looked very much like a brown recluse with the fiddle on back, no other markings, flattened thorax, and recluse-like body proportions. But when I checked its eye pattern it was clearly not a recluse. It was the size of a medium-large recluse. I've never seen anything like it. Attached are 2 good pictures of it's eyes. Strange how the eye configuration apears different depending on the angle of the photo. Please help with this one.

Bernalillo County New Mexico

Expert Response

Looking at your 3 photos, I can see big bristly spines on the legs. That alone will separate this spider from any recluse. I'll bet there are 2 tiny eyes on your spider that  we can't see with your level of magnification. Then 6 eyes (easy to see) +2 eyes  (hard to see) = 8 eyes---again separating it from the recluse. Also, these eyes seem to be clustered together 'tightly.' Two more problems---pale spider shot---the mark where the eyes are is small and narrow rather than a dark brown, easy-to-see violin. Looking at the various legs, it appears there are 2 colors on the more posterior pairs---instead of one tone for all of them.

I think this looks more like a Kukulcania (Filistatidae) than a recluse spider. Kukulcania is sometimes called a 'southern house spider.' Adult females are velvety coal black but without any hourglass marking. Males remain brownish, with several tones occurring on various parts of the body. Males might wander around looking for females, but females are the most likely to make those irregular, often thick-looking sheets of sticky white silk under couches, chairs and other heavy furniture.
An Ask Extension Expert Replied October 10, 2017, 11:54 AM EDT

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