<FONT color=blue>Update:</FONT> Brown Recluse Found in Florida Not Native, Spider Expert Reports

This spider, found in a Jacksonville, Fla., home, was positively identified as a brown recluse spider, marking one of the few times this pest has been confirmed in Florida. (Photo courtesty of Duval County Extension Agent Pam Mattis).

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The spider collected from the home of a Bug-Out Service customer in Florida (see previous article) and confirmed as a brown recluse, is a non-native species, according to G. B. Edwards, a spider expert in the state of Florida. 

Edwards, who is curator of Arachnida, Myriapoda,and Thysanoptera for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, was given the specimen by University of Florida’s Dr. Lyle Buss. Edwards reviewed the specimen and identified it as Loxosceles rufescens, the Mediterranean recluse spider — not the brown recluse spider native to the United States, Loxosceles recluse.

“This is a tramp species that occasionally gets transported in commerce, usually shows up in large cities and/or ports, and typically is found in warehouses,” Edwards said. “It is not surprising that it would show up every once in a while, and it doesn’t mean that it is all over the place. The interesting part of this story is that it was found in a house, which suggests the occupants brought home some kind of container in which a spider had been transported, possibly initiating a population in that one house.”

Up-close photo of the Jacksonville brown recluse spider. (Photo courtesty of Duval County Extension Agent Pam Mattis).

Edwards said it is not uncommon in Florida for a rare import to result in a one-building infestation. “Including the present case, eigh out of the 13 known finds of recluse spiders — which includes three different species — in Florida since 1904 were one-building infestions, two were single specimen finds in buildings, and three were interceptions in vehicles,” Edwards said. ”They don’t seem to spread here. We don’t know why, but it’s obviously good that they don’t.”

To put this case in perspective, the occupants of the house should be concerned — even though the chance of an adverse encounter with a recluse spider is low even where the spider occurs in high populations — however, no one else is likely to be affected, Edwards said.