Brown Recluse Spider

Kingdom: Animalia

Characteristics that place it here:

• multicelluar with special eukaryotic cells
• rely on other organisms for nourishment
• ingest food and digest food in an internal activity
• have their own means of locomotion

Phylum: Arthropoda

Characteristics that place it here:

• have external skeletons 
• have jointed bodies and limbs

Class: Arachnida

Characteristics that place it here:

• have a pair of tagmata called cephalothorax and abdomen
• the abdomen is segmented or unsegmented
• the appendages on the abdomen are absent or modified

Order: Araneae

Characteristics that place it here:

• are spiders

• their size is .5 to 90 mm

• have ducts of poison glands

Family: Loxoscelidae

Characteristics that place it here:

• have six eyes arranged in three groups

• build an overpowering web to catch prey

• are venomous to humans

Genius: Loxosceles

Species: Loxosceles Reclusa

Characteristics that place it here:

• bites are very poisonous to humans

• normally eat at night

• feed on small insects

• are found outdoors, under rocks, and inside bark in human habitations

    Poem:

                Spiders live in bark

                They like to eat in the dark 

                Their bite is very deadly

                Watch as they approach steadily

References:

 Information from Animal Diversity Web, January 3, 2000. http://animaldiversity.ummz.com

Picture from Identifying and Misidentifying the Brown Recluse Spider.  http://dermatology.cdlib.org/DOJvol5num2/special/recluse.html.  January 10, 2000

Background from Arachnology Reclusa   www.arachnology.be/Arachnology.html. January 10, 2000