This spider looks a lot like a spider that is crawling around in my dorm room right now. I've seen him once before at the drinking fountain (he actually drank some water which was neat) but now that he's in my room I'm wishing I had killed him when I had the chance. The only issue with this photo is the location. I live in central Illinois. The spider I have is very light brown almost colorless but exactly the same shape as the spider pictured. He's quite active during the day which is also odd given that recluse are supposed to be nocturnal. I don't know if he has the violin marking or not if he does it's very faint because I would have noticed it when I saw him up close at the drinking fountain. I don't know where he is right now, last place I saw him was next to the smoke alarm about half an hour ago I think (I hope) he has crawled up inside it and stays there (but I doubt he'll stay he seems to be quite the explorer, he had a dark cozy place behind the dresser that he left to go on his ceiling adventure). I'm pretty sure it's male because of the palps I think he has dark eyes but I'm not sure how many he has. Please let me know what kind of spider best fits this description and location. Hoping it's not a recluse.

Yeah, we know we don't live in the area for loxosceles reclusa, but we figure this might be a l. sabina, l. arizonica or l. deserta, (the so called Arizona Brown Spiders or Desert Brown Spiders; one of the "cousins" of the recluse.) We found quite a lot of these fellas (and a few gals too!) as we were cleaning out our house and moving. That's part of why we moved from that house...not enough space, and too many cardboard boxes to make nice homes for them! ;)

this is not reclusa, which has slightly different markings.

Also, the only specimen record I can find for reclusa in Arizona is the single female identified by Gertsch in 1966 (Gertsch, Ennik 1983) which did happen to be in Tucson.

Your Loxosceles photos are valuable to the guide and should not be frassed. I'm not sure if they can be positively identified at the species level though.

...for your comments! Here is a link to a photo of a different AZ brown spider we found in our house (the first, actually) that we sent to our local bug expert, Carl Olson at the U of AZ. Here's what he had to say about it when we e-mailed him:

"Okay you did indeed find a Brown Recluse (our version). Since you are in Tucson, what you are encountering is typical, but the best way to deal with all this is home maintenance. Since you mention having kids, we try to make sure you understand most of these critters are far less insidious and harmful to your kids than using insecticides around...The poison salesman would want you to think it will bite all the time and cause your hands to decay but that is farthest thing from truth."

I thought I would send these photos, more because I have not noticed a specific desert loxosceles spp page here, and thought you might like the pix, rather than to get an ID, per se. But it's still nice to hear the different opinions! Thanks again!

I'm wondering if your friend may have meant L deserta when he said "brown recluse (our version)". Species ID is difficult from the pics .. but I have to say that I am of the opinion that this is not a L. reclusa based mainly on the location... though the pics don't look like it either.