Spider ID: Identify a Spider by Photo, Eyes and Web

• Adult female black widow: shiny black body, slender black legs, and a red or orange hourglass mark on the underside of the abdomen.
• The key identifying feature of recluse spiders is 6 equal-sized eyes arranged in 3 pairs (most spiders have 8 eyes).
• Jumping spiders build no web; instead they stalk and pounce on prey by jumping.
• The jaws (chelicerae) of most spiders are too small to bite through human skin.
• Bites or stings from other arthropods, such as ticks, fleas, bees, and wasps, are sometimes mistaken for spider bites.

People most often mix spiders up with:

• Ticks

Open the other page and compare its list against the marks above; the differences are usually in the antennae, wings or the way the body is divided.

Most spiders rarely bite people because their jaws are too small; black widow and brown recluse bites are medically significant; about 10% of recluse spider bites cause moderate or greater tissue damage and scarring, while most others only cause inflammation and heal on their own. Seek medical care promptly for severe symptoms or any allergic reaction.

Spiders are overall beneficial because they feed on pest insects and other nuisance insects.

Outdoors, commonly found in dark, dry, sheltered, relatively undisturbed places along with their webs; they may also enter homes through cracks and other openings.

Get as close as your camera will focus, from directly above, in daylight or a bright lamp. Include the whole body with the legs and antennae in frame; a second shot from the side shows wings and body segments. Put a coin or ruler next to it for scale. For a bite or a bug found on skin or bedding, photograph the bug itself, not the mark. The app names the likely group; use the list above to confirm.

You identify a spider by checking, in order, its web, its eyes, its legs, the shape of its body and where it was found. A photo and an identification app will usually name it; these checks let you confirm the answer.

• Web or no web. University of Kentucky entomologists group house and yard spiders largely by this: cobweb spiders build irregular cobwebs in room corners, cellar spiders build sheet-like or irregular webs in dark places, funnel weavers build a horizontal sheet with a funnel-shaped retreat, orb weavers build the classic round web, and wolf, jumping, sac and crab spiders hunt without a snare web.
• Eyes. Most spiders have eight eyes. Recluse spiders have six, arranged in three pairs; University of Minnesota Extension notes that the sowbug (dysderid) spider also has only six. Jumping spiders have very large middle eyes and, according to UMN, the best vision of any spiders.
• Legs. Banded, striped or spiny legs rule out a brown recluse, whose legs are uniformly coloured with fine hairs and no spines (UC Riverside).
• Body shape. Cobweb spiders typically have a round, ball-like abdomen (University of Kentucky); the female black widow is glossy black with a red or orange hourglass on the underside.
• Where and when. Indoors or outdoors, basement or sunny window, and which state or country you are in. Texas A&M entomologists ask for location and date with every photo, because range rules many species in or out.

No agency publishes an official top-ten, but these are the spiders that US university extension guides describe most often in and around homes. Sizes are body length unless stated, from University of Minnesota Extension (UMN) and the University of Kentucky (Kentucky).

• American house spider (*Parasteatoda tepidariorum*): over 1/4 inch, greyish to brownish with chevron markings; loose cobwebs in basements, crawl spaces and room corners (UMN, Kentucky).
• Cellar spider (often called daddy longlegs): 1/4 to 1/3 inch, pale grey to light tan, very long thin legs; loose irregular webs in crawl spaces, basements and cellars (UMN).
• Wolf spider: 1/4 to 1 inch, dark brown and slightly hairy, runs on the ground and builds no web. Kentucky entomologists call them accidental invaders that do not persist indoors.
• Jumping spider: 1/4 to 1/2 inch, compact, dark with white markings or brightly coloured; active by day on windows, walls and ceilings, moving in short jumps (UMN).
• Sac spider: 1/5 to 2/5 inch, yellowish or pale; hunts at night and rests by day in a silk tube, indoors often on walls near the ceiling (UMN).
• Funnel weaver (including the barn funnel weaver and grass spider): about 3/4 inch, brownish or greyish with stripes behind the head; a flat web leading into a funnel, indoors in corners and closets (UMN).
• Parson spider: about 1/2 inch, grey abdomen with a white band; hunts fast at night. UMN notes it has been known to bite if trapped in clothing or bedding, and the bite can be painful.
• Fishing spider: about 1 inch body and up to 4 inches with legs spread (UMN); sometimes found in basements and other damp parts of buildings (Kentucky).
• Orb weavers: rarely indoors but often on or near outside walls (Kentucky). The black and yellow garden spider has a body about 1 inch long and UMN describes it as shy and not dangerous to people.
• Black widow and brown recluse: the two groups of medical importance in the US. Both have their own pages: black widow and brown recluse. UMN notes neither is native to the upper Midwest.

Yes, as a first pass. Google Lens compares the objects in your picture with other images and ranks them by similarity, and it usually generates several possible results with different probabilities rather than one certain answer. On an iPhone, Apple's Visual Look Up works on iOS 15 or later on images in apps such as Notes, Mail, Messages and Safari; if the Info button has no star, Look Up is not available for that photo. Seek by iNaturalist is free and does not require an account.

People are the second pass. Spider ID (spiderid.com) is a community site where members identify submitted photos; when we opened it on 25 September 2026 it listed 583 species and 84,916 pictures. Texas A&M entomologists also point people to BugGuide and iNaturalist.

Whatever tool you use, the photo decides the result. Photograph the spider from above, then from the front so the eyes show, then the legs, and for a suspected widow the underside. Put a ruler beside it: Texas A&M notes that whether something is 3 mm or 5 mm can change the species. Photograph it and the app identifies it, then check the answer against the five checks above.

For almost every species on the list above, nothing. University of Minnesota Extension says spiders are not harmful and should be tolerated when possible, and that eliminating all spiders from a home is difficult and unnecessary. University of Kentucky entomologists add that most species do not attempt to bite and many have fangs that cannot pierce skin, although a bite can feel like a bee or wasp sting and some people react to the venom.

If you want fewer of them, UMN's non-chemical list is: reduce the insects they feed on, catch and release wanderers, clear clutter, remove webs and egg sacs, and use sticky traps. It reserves pesticides for very large infestations where those steps have failed. The exception is a confirmed brown recluse or black widow, which the pages linked above cover in detail.

Research and drafting for this page used AI assistance. Every figure, date and quotation was then checked line by line against the sources listed at the bottom of the page, each of which was opened while writing. Nothing here is a diagnosis. If a bite, sting or contact with an insect is followed by trouble breathing, swelling of the face or throat, spreading redness, fever or any symptom that worries you, get medical care; in the United States Poison Help (1-800-222-1222) is free and open 24 hours a day.

The University of Kentucky's spider chart and Termite.com's chart give a single deciding mark for common spiders not already covered on this page:

• Woodlouse hunter: very large fangs and a low, flat shape.
• Crab spiders: low and flat, with the front two pairs of legs very long.
• Purseweb spiders: shiny black; some have white marks behind the fangs.
• Hobo spider: brown with chevron-shaped markings on the abdomen (Termite.com).
• Huntsman spider: long-legged, buff to beige (Termite.com).

Entomologist Gerald Wegner's Spider Identification Guide, published by BASF and hosted by the IPM Institute of North America, sorts the spiders found around buildings by their jaws first and their eyes second:

• Jaws that strike straight down: mygalomorphs such as tarantulas and trapdoor spiders, with eight small eyes clustered at the front of the head.
• Jaws that close sideways like scissors: the true spiders, the much larger group that includes most spiders on the chart above.
• Six eyes in three pairs: recluse (violin) spiders, spitting spiders, and cell and tube spiders. Six eyes in two groups of three: short-bodied cellar spiders.
• Eight eyes, some grouped together: cobweb spiders including widows (round abdomen, irregular web), orb weavers and garden spiders (orb web), long-jawed orb weavers and long-bodied cellar spiders.
• Eight eyes well separated and similar in size: sac spiders, ground spiders and ghost spiders (two rows of four), funnel weavers (long spinnerets, rear legs curving back at rest) and crab spiders (legs curving forward, very short spinnerets).
• Eight eyes, some much larger: jumping spiders, wolf spiders, nursery web and fishing spiders, wandering spiders, crevice weavers, and giant crab or huntsman spiders.

The same guide defines a spider as having two body regions, eight legs, a pair of pedipalps, a pair of jaws and six or eight simple eyes. It counts over 37,000 described species worldwide and nearly 1,000 in the continental US and Canada, many introduced from Europe.

No agency publishes an official top-ten list of deadly spiders. Wegner's guide notes that all spiders use venom on their prey but relatively few are dangerous to people. It names the Sydney funnel-web spider of Australia as having one of the most life-threatening bites, and says some sources give certain Brazilian wandering spiders (Phoneutria) the most toxic venom. In the United States, the University of Kentucky chart lists only two groups of medical significance: widow spiders and the brown recluse. Termite.com's chart describes brown recluse venom as causing tissue death around the bite and black widow venom as attacking the nervous system.

If someone is bitten and feels unwell, or the bite is getting worse, get medical care, and take the spider or a clear photo of it if you can do so safely. See black widow bites and brown recluse bites.

Almost all common house spiders are harmless to people. Utah State University's list of the top 20 arachnids it is asked about rates these as not of medical concern or not dangerous: wolf spiders, orb weavers, ground spiders, the woodlouse spider, jumping spiders, cellar spiders, crab spiders, crevice weavers and lynx spiders. Two more can give a painful bite that is not medically significant: yellow sac spiders and huntsman spiders (USU).

The ones to take seriously in the US:

• Black widows: USU calls widow spiders the most dangerous spiders to people in Utah. See black widow bites.
• Brown recluse: see brown recluse bites for where it lives and how to recognise it.

The hobo spider, often feared, is not listed as toxic by the CDC and there is no significant evidence of necrotic bites, according to USU.

Two reasons. First, a female wolf spider may be carrying her young: the egg sac is attached to her spinnerets, and after hatching the spiderlings climb onto her back and ride there for several weeks (Wikipedia). Squashing her can scatter dozens of tiny spiders across the floor. Second, it is unnecessary. Wolf spiders are not of medical concern (Utah State University); bites are rare, happen when the spider is handled, and cause swelling and mild pain (Wikipedia).

The better option is catch and release: trap it under a cup, slide a card underneath and let it go outside.

None of the extension sources we opened names a scent or product that house spiders reliably avoid. What they recommend is making the house less useful to spiders:

• Repair torn screens, replace weather stripping and caulk gaps (Scotts Miracle-Gro).
• Sweep away webs and silk with a broom (Scotts).
• Clear clutter such as storage boxes and cardboard piles where spiders hide (Scotts).
• Reduce the insects they feed on, and use sticky traps, as the extension advice earlier on this page describes.

The name covers two unrelated animals. Cellar spiders are true spiders with long, thread-like legs and a cylindrical abdomen that hang in loose webs in dark, damp corners. Harvestmen have a small oval body with no visible waist and long thin legs, and are not spiders at all (Scotts Miracle-Gro). Both are harmless; USU says cellar spiders are not dangerous to people.

In British homes you are almost always looking at one of six groups the Natural History Museum (NHM) describes. Of the 650 spider species in the UK, the NHM says only about 12 have been recorded biting people, all larger spiders, and only two or three have given a significant bite, usually localised pain and swelling.

• House spiders (*Tegenaria* and *Eratigena*, six species): brown front half and tan abdomen with a herringbone pattern; flat sheet webs that funnel into a retreat in garages, sheds and lofts. They are seen mostly from August to October, when males leave their webs to look for females; males usually die in autumn after mating. The cardinal spider (*Tegenaria parietina*) male can reach a 12 cm leg span.
• Daddy long legs spider (*Pholcus phalangioides*): a very small greyish body and long thin legs, up to 45 mm across in the NHM's figure; untidy webs in ceiling corners. It vibrates in its web when threatened and eats other spiders, including large house spiders.
• False widows (*Steatoda*): four common species. The noble false widow (females 8.5 to 14 mm) has a pale mark on the abdomen often called skull-shaped, and red to brown legs; it arrived with bananas from the Canary Islands and Madeira and sits in the top corners of rooms and conservatories. The cupboard spider (females 6.5 to 10 mm), rabbit hutch spider (4.5 to 7 mm) and Mediterranean false widow (8 to 13 mm) are the other three. The NHM calls a false widow bite small and relatively harmless.
• Lace-web spiders: three UK species, sometimes indoors.
• Missing sector orb web spider: harmless, often indoors in autumn.
• Zebra jumping spider: often comes into homes.

Almost all house spiders are harmless to people; the ones that matter are few and have clear marks. In the US, check for the two the University of Kentucky's spider chart singles out: the black widow, glossy black with red markings on the top and underside of the abdomen, and the brown recluse, with a dark violin-shaped mark on its back whose neck points to the rear. In the UK, the NHM says spider bites are quite rare and generally no cause for concern, and describes false widow bites as small and relatively harmless.

If someone is bitten and gets spreading redness, severe pain, cramps, trouble breathing or feels unwell, get medical care, and in the US call Poison Help on 1-800-222-1222. Take a photo of the spider, or keep it in a closed jar, so it can be identified.

Picture galleries of spiders are organised by family, because family is what a photo can usually show. These are the families in the Gerald Wegner Spider Identification Guide (IPM Institute of North America), with the features its identification notes give for each:

• Orb weavers: round to heart-shaped abdomen, legs usually banded and spiny, circular webs. About 180 species in North America north of Mexico.
• Garden spiders (*Argiope*): oval to shield-shaped abdomen patterned yellow, black and silver-white, banded legs.
• Long-jawed and orchard orb weavers: elongate abdomen; long, slender, spiny, translucent legs.
• Cobweb spiders: round abdomen, short spindly legs, irregular cobwebs; more than 230 species in North America north of Mexico.
• Widows: globular abdomen with a red or orange hourglass underneath.
• Cellar spiders: very long, thin legs; 1/10 to 1/3 inch bodies.
• Recluse (violin) spiders: six eyes in three pairs, dark violin mark on a light brown front body.
• Funnel weavers: elongate abdomen with a pair of long spinnerets, yellowish-tan and brown, sheet webs with a funnel retreat; about 300 species north of Mexico.
• Wolf spiders: two large eyes in the back row, long spiny legs, no web.
• Nursery web and fishing spiders: similar to wolf spiders, often with banded legs.
• Jumping spiders: stocky, with four large front eyes, the middle pair especially large.
• Crab spiders: flat body, legs held crab-like, front pairs larger.
• Giant crab (huntsman) spiders: 3/4 to 1 inch, long hairy legs, brown and beige.
• Sac, ghost and ground spiders: hunters with eight small eyes and elongate abdomens; ground spiders often look velvety or glossy.
• Tarantulas: 1 1/2 to 2 inch hairy bodies, with jaws that move up and down rather than side to side.

For single-species pages see hobo spider identification.

The Wegner guide names the American house spider, triangulate cobweb spider, northern cobweb spider and false black widow as among the most commonly encountered spiders in and around buildings, and the long-bodied cellar spider (*Pholcus phalangioides*) as arguably the most frequently encountered cellar spider in buildings, out of 40 US cellar spider species. Waltham Pest Services calls cellar spiders the most common house spider in the US. Both are cobweb builders of corners, basements and garages, and neither is dangerous: the guide says the long-bodied cellar spider's bite is not painful and its venom is not dangerous.

• SpiderSpotter (spiderspotter.com): a gallery of around 40 species in 10 groups, from orb weavers and funnel weavers to running crab spiders, each with photos, sizes, season and similar species. Its focus is Belgium and northern Europe, so use it for European spiders.
• Notes from the Road (notesfromtheroad.com): a traveller's photo life list of spiders and other arachnids from around the world, arranged by family, including wandering spiders, net-casting spiders, lynx spiders and tarantulas. The author notes that exact identification can depend on body structures too small to see without magnification.
• University of Kentucky spider chart and the Wegner guide: the North American families above, with photos.

A gallery helps you match a family; for the species, a close-up of the eyes and legs and your location matter more than the overall look.