From: Donald Mathis
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.animals
Subject: Re: Donald Mathis!! Please read...
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:12:35 -0500
name="Brown-recluseSpider-1.jpg"

First of all, this potent little guy was appropriately named (recluse).
As a result, the posted picture is the only one I've ever seen.

Am posting a rescan (super high resolution) of the original photo (taken
by Wyman Weinzer), zeroing in on the head & body. The "fiddle" is more
visible (if you get close enough to the real guy to see his/her fiddle,
you're to close!

Excerpt from February 1995 issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine
written by Dr. David Bowles:

"The brown recluse is common in the southern and midwestern United
States and it apparently has been introduced into isolated pockets in
several western states. Interestingly, the species first was described
in 1958 from specimens collected in Austin (Texas)." ....

"Brown recluses are small bodied, long legged spiders ranging in color
from light fawn to dark brown; the anterior or head end and the legs are
dark brown and the abdomen is tannish. The most distinctive marking of a
brown recluse spider is the dark brown, fiddle-shaped band on the upper
surface of the body, with the base of the "fiddle" directed toward the
head and the neck directed toward the abdomen." ....

"The venom of the brown recluse is a hematoxin that kills tissue at the
site of the bite.... Deaths from the bite of a brown recluse are
extremely rare and result more from secondary infection than from the
toxic effects of the venom." End quote

Not reassuring to those who have suffered the bites from these spiders
and survived (my personal comment).

Hope this is useful.

Donald
........................................................................

Taylor wrote:
>
> Thanks for posting the Br. Recluse-
> We've been having a multi-state debate over it's appearance and habits-
> Do you know anything of the origin of it's alias, "fiddleback"? I wonder
> if you could direct me to the possibility of close-ups of it's back &
> belly...
>
> Subject:
> Re: [Fwd: Brown-recluse Spider]
> Date:
> Sun, 24 Aug 1997 21:06:57 -0700
> References:
> 1
>
> looks pretty generic - scary!
> in tennessee the occasional victim loses a leg because of one of these
> buggers, and may not even feel the bite!
>
> can't see the thorax on this picture very well, tho.
> it would be very useful to see the origin of the name "fiddleback
> spider"
>
> Taylor wrote:
> >
> > Weren't we just talking about this?
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------