Halls of the Dark Muse

There has been this strange spider I have seen around a few times but have not been able to identify. Whenever I try to look him up online, he never resembles any of the spiders that are known species in this area and I have never really been able to get that close of a look of him, for usually it is in the evening when I see him so there is not much light, and though I am not phobic of spiders, when dealing with a specious unknown I generally try to use some precaution.

Well today I saw my mystery spider again and this time in perfect conditions to really observe him closely. For one there is plenty of light, and he was sitting on top of a book so I reached over and picked up the book carefully to try not to disturb him to really study him closely.

He is an all brown spider that does not really have any sorts of markings upon it, or different colorations, and appears to be very smooth and hairless. I would say about mid-sized, not what I would call a particuarly large spider, but nor a small spider either. And he seemed to be completely non aggressive, as he appeared to be totally oblivious to my presence. The whole time I picked up the book and moved the book around, he never moved a single inch.

After studying him sometime I went back online to see if I could find anything. And I have to admit that spider bore a very strong resemblance to the Brown Recluse spider. The coloration was right, the only thing I was not sure of, is I could not tell if my spider had the distinct violin shape known to the Recluse spider, becasue it had been kind of curled up with its legs bunched around it. But it did seem as if there was some darker colored marking on its back.

So I took the book and held it outside and tried to shake the spider onto the ground so I could get a better look of it when it was all spread out with its legs open. Well the spider finally started to move but instead of dropping to the ground it began running towards me across the book. Now I am not particularly scared of spiders, but the possibility of having aggravated a potentially dangerous venomous spider was less than thrilling so I just dropped the book on the ground and than the spider kept running back towards the house so I shut the door.

Thus I was only bale to get a glimpse of what it looked like before it vanished into some crack underneath the door frame, but from what I saw it looked like it could have had the right shape for a Recluse spider.

Now the problem with this is that Recluse spiders are not generally known in CA and though they can be found in some parts of Southern Cali, I have thoroughly researched the subject, and every expert I can find, everyone who knows about spiders, websites from Universities that have studied spiders. Every possible authority on the subject all definitively say there are no Brown Recluse spiders in Northern California. There is no evidence to support the idea of the Brown Recluse living in Northern California.

I was hunting around to try and determine what the spider I saw could possibly have been and what if any spiders bare a resemblance to the Recluse spider, and I did find that the Southern House spider does also look very much like the spider I saw and has the same basic coloration as the Recluse spider and to the eye of some one who is not a professional they do look a lot of like. Of course the Southern House spider is also not known to be found in the Northern Part of California. But I do not know know of any spiders that are known in North California that resemble either the Recluse or the Southern House spider.

So it seems to be one of these two species must be starting to expand thier population further north or perhaps this one is just a fluke that was brought in from someone that moved here.

Because I am familair the the types of spiders that are most commonly known to live in this area and I know it does not look like any of those. And I can find no spider that bares a resemblance to this one on any spider identification chart for spiders of Northern California.