Brown spider
Loxosceles rufescens (Dufour, 1820)
Status not recordedspiders
The brown spider (Loxosceles rufescens) is a species in the family Sicariidae, order Araneae. Recorded adults reach 6.55 mm in length. Source checklists list it for 3 countries: Algeria, Comoros and India.
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Quick facts about the brown spider
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- 6.55 mmsrc for Length
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- rockysrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 3 countriessrc for Countries on record
How big is the brown spider?
Where does the brown spider live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The brown spider is listed for 3 countries.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: WSC (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
Where has it been introduced?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the brown spider as introduced in 2 countries.
Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).
Is the brown spider endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the brown spider classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classArachnida
- orderAraneae
- familySicariidae
- genusLoxosceles
- SpeciesLoxosceles rufescens (Dufour, 1820)
Synonyms Loxosceles citigrada, Loxosceles comoroensis, Loxosceles compactilis, Loxosceles distincta, Loxosceles distincta, Loxosceles erythrocephala, Loxosceles erythrocephala, Loxosceles indrabeles, Loxosceles marylandica, Loxosceles ruescens, Omosita rufescens, Scytodes distincta, Scytodes erythrocephala, Scytodes pallida, Scytodes rufescens, Spermophora comoroensis
Other names and names in other languages (23)
- Brown recluseEnglish
- Mediterranean recluseEnglish
- Mediterranean recluse spiderEnglish
- Violin spiderEnglish
- Aranya Violinista MediterràniaCatalan
- koutník ryšavýCzech
- Braune ViolinspinneGerman
- Araña reclusa parda mediterráneaSpanish
- Araignée violonFrench
- Araignée violon bruneFrench
- Loxosceles rousseFrench
- ששן חוםHebrew
- ארסן חוםHebrew
- Smeđi sredozemni pauk samotnjakCroatian
- Ragno violinoItalian
- Ragno violino mediterraneoItalian
- イトグモJapanese
- 실거미Korean
- VioolspinDutch
- Aranha-violino-mediterrânicaPortuguese
- แมงมุมสันโดษเมดิเตอร์เรเนียนThai
- Akdeniz Münzevi ÖrümceğiTurkish
- 絲蛛Chinese
Relatives of the brown spider
Other species in the same genus Loxosceles.
Fiddleback
Loxosceles reclusa
Chilean recluse
Loxosceles laeta
Gaucho recluse
Loxosceles gaucho
Desert recluse
Loxosceles deserta
Amazon recluse
Loxosceles amazonica
Apache recluse
Loxosceles apachea
CompareBrown spider vs FiddlebackBrown spider vs Chilean recluseBrown spider vs Gaucho recluseBrown spider vs Desert recluse
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the brown spider?
An adult brown spider measures 6.55 mm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the brown spider live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the brown spider for 3 countries: Algeria, Comoros and India. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the brown spider an invasive species?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the brown spider as introduced in 2 countries: United States and Yemen, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.
What kind of animal is the brown spider?
The brown spider (Loxosceles rufescens) belongs to the family Sicariidae in the order Araneae.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-13. How this page is put together.
- Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-11-13
Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Brown spider (Loxosceles rufescens). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-spider
“Brown spider (Loxosceles rufescens).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-spider.
@misc{brown_spider_2026,
title = {Brown spider (Loxosceles rufescens)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-spider},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-13}
}