Brown Recluse vs House Spider
Loxosceles reclusa vs Kukulcania hibernalis
In the large majority of cases it is the house spider. The brown spider found wandering across a wall or floor in the southern US is far more often a male southern house spider than a recluse, and the two are told apart by counting eyes rather than by looking for a violin.
The one thing that settles it
The eyes — six versus eight. A brown recluse has six eyes arranged in three widely separated pairs. A southern house spider has eight, in a tight cluster. No other single character comes close for reliability, and it is the one that experts actually use.
Side by side
| Character | Brown Recluse | Southern House Spider |
|---|---|---|
| Danger | Dangerous | Harmless |
| Eyes | Six, in three widely spaced pairs | Eight, in one tight cluster |
| Violin mark | Dark violin on the head-plate, neck pointing backwards — but worn or dark individuals hide it | None. The head-plate is plain |
| Legs | Uniform tan to brown, no bands, no stripes, no spines | Very long on the male, and it is that leg length that draws the eye |
| Web | Flat, irregular, sheet-like, in an undisturbed corner. Never a neat orb | A fan of silk radiating out from a crack or hole, usually on brickwork |
| Where you meet it | Indoors in stored cardboard, wall voids, folded clothing, shoes left out | Around brickwork, window frames, eaves and porches — mostly outdoors |
| Range | South-central US only: roughly Kansas and Texas east to Georgia, north to Ohio | The southern US, Florida across the Gulf into Texas and up the southeast coast |
Why they get confused
Almost entirely because of the male southern house spider. The female is dark, stocky and stays in her crevice, so nobody reports her. The male is pale brown, long-legged and wanders in the open across walls and floors, which is exactly the behaviour and colour people have been taught to associate with a recluse. He is also unusually bold about approaching people, which does not help. The common house spider, Parasteatoda tepidariorum, is a different animal again — rounder, web-bound and patterned — and is confused with widows rather than with recluses.
If you still can’t tell
Eye arrangement is very hard to resolve in a phone photograph, and if you cannot see it, you cannot settle this from the picture alone. Two things help more than guessing. First, check the range: if you are outside the south-central states, a recluse is very unlikely regardless of what the spider looks like. Second, look at where it was — a spider on outside brickwork behind a radiating fan of silk is a southern house spider, and a spider in stored cardboard in Missouri deserves more caution. If it still will not resolve, treat it as the more serious possibility, keep it under a glass rather than handling it, and get it looked at.
Common questions
Is the violin marking enough on its own?
No. Several harmless species carry a similar dark patch, and on a worn or dark individual a real one can be almost invisible. It is a supporting character, not a decisive one. The eyes decide it.
It has very long legs — does that make it a recluse?
It makes it less likely. Long, spindly legs on a brown spider walking in the open in the southern US point towards a male southern house spider. A recluse has moderately long legs and a body the size of a small coin, and it does not stroll about in plain view.
I am in California. Could this be a brown recluse?
Effectively no. Loxosceles reclusa does not occur in California and verified reports are vanishingly rare. California has its own recluse relatives in limited desert areas, but the brown recluse of the south-central states is not a California spider.
What else gets mistaken for a recluse?
Barn funnel weavers, wolf spiders, cellar spiders and woodlouse spiders account for most of the rest. All of them are harmless, and all of them have eight eyes.
Full records
- Brown Recluse Dangerous
- Southern House Spider Harmless
Where this was checked
- iNaturalist — Loxosceles reclusa checked 2026-07-30
- iNaturalist — Kukulcania hibernalis checked 2026-07-30
- University of Kentucky Entomology — Brown Recluse checked 2026-07-30
- University of Florida Featured Creatures — Southern House Spider checked 2026-07-30
Last reviewed 2026-07-30. We identify, we don’t diagnose — what we can and can’t tell you.