On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 1:51:59 -0700, Bruce Simpson wrote:

When I was in California last month I was warned to beware of the
brown recluse spiders that were apparently quite common in the area.

One of the people I was with was already deeply arachnaphobic and
totally spun out when, while we were dining outside at the hotel,
several spiders slowly descended on threads of silk and one landed on
his head.

It was so funny -- boy could that guy dance!

Turns out they were just a harmless spider that inhabits the trees and
hangs down on a thread trying to catch moths at night.

Rick Vetter, spider specialist in the Dept of Entomology at UC Riverside
insists that there are no brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa) in California.

He acknowledges the presence of L. deserta in the Eastern deserts of the
state, as well as a couple of isolated populations of L. laeta that have been
unintentionally imported from South America. But he says these populations do
not coincide with the areas in which there are reports of brown recluse
bites. He notes that an occasional L. reclusa may "hitchhike" with travelers,
but is adamant that there are no colonies of this spider in the state.

He has an interesting set of web pages on L. reclusa and other "problem"
spiders (http://spiders.ucr.edu/) and is currently sponsoring the "spider
challenge" in which he is asking people to send him L. reclusa candidates
collected in California. He says that to date none of the spiders sent to him
have been L. reclusa. Here is the challenge page:

http://spiders.ucr.edu/challenge.html


Tlacatecatl Tlacaxipe