Habitat and Appearance
Loxosceles is distributed nearly worldwide in warmer areas, and are often known as violin spiders, fiddlebacks or reapers. All have six eyes arranged in three groups of two (dyads) and some are brownish with a darker brown characteristic violin marking on the cephalothorax. However, the "violin marking" cannot be used as a reliable way to identify the spider as literally thousands of species of spider have the same markings. Spiders come with many markings varying greatly within the same species. Most Loxosceles can live for one and a half to two years. Members of both genera can live for very long times without food or water. They are about 7–12 mm long.
The recluse spider family includes about 13 species in the United States, the brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) being the best known of these. It is found in a large area of the Midwest, west to Colorado and the New Mexico state line and east to Northern Georgia. Sporadic records from other locations only represent incidental introductions, not established populations.
Other notable members of this genus include the Chilean recluse (L. laeta) and the Mediterranean recluse (Loxosceles rufescens).
Recently, concerns have been raised regarding recluses spreading faster due to warmer air carrying them farther as a result of changing climate. On the contrary, newly hatched recluses do not travel via ballooning and thus the populations are confined to very tight spaces with dense populations.
Read more about this topic: Recluse Spider
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