Southern house spider
The southern house spider is a large spider that likes to live in cracks around houses. The females are dark brown or black and stay hidden in their webs. The males are lighter brown with long legs and wander around. It is almost blind, so it finds its way by feel.
How big is it?
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Fun facts
Its web is not sticky. It combs the silk with its legs to make fluffy threads that snag insects.
It can squeeze through cracks less than a centimetre wide.
When it feels in danger, it plays dead.
A male may crawl right over your hand. That is not an attack, it just cannot see you.
A female lays about 129 eggs at a time.
Most asked questions about Southern house spider
?Is the southern house spider a brown recluse?
No. The males look a bit similar, but they are often bigger, have no violin mark and have long feelers in front.
?Where does the southern house spider live?
In the southern United States and down to Argentina, often in cracks in walls and around windows.
Myth buster
Myth: A southern house spider is really a brown recluse.
Truth: No. The males have a similar colour and shape, but they have no violin mark, are often bigger, and have long, thin feelers in front.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Kukulcania hibernalis
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Filistatidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Filistatidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
Where the facts come from
- Southern house spider (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Theresa Thom. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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