Spiders are always getting trapped in our giant bathtub and I repeatedly step in and scoop them out with a newspaper or magazine or whatever else might be handy. Saturday morning I did that with this guy and only after I'd deposited him on the stones of the tub surround did it occur to me to wonder if it was a BROWN RECLUSE. I hurriedly grabbed a candle holder and trapped him beneath it.
It was hours later (because of the cat Hamilton and the baby mouse he'd brought into the bedroom that required saving, which required a trip to Wildlife Rescue, though other details shall not be gone into now) that I remembered the spider and went back to get him, with a secure container with lid at hand. He was still under the candle holder and in no time I had him. Now that I could see him more clearly, I looked him up and sure enough, he was the Recluse that I had suspected him to be.
It was the long, thin, somewhat pale legs that clued me in. It is only now that I've seen one live that I understand what is meant by the violin-shaped marking on the back, though I learned that that mark is sometimes faded or nonexistent. On this fellow it is very clear. I also learned a better identifier: unlike most U.S. spiders which have eight eyes, recluses have six, and they are set in three pairs. This website was the one I found most helpful identification: http://dermatology.cdlib.org/DOJvol5num2/special/recluse.html.
After we'd looked at him a while and had the photo shoot, then Hugh took him far, far down the hill to beyond the campsite and set him free.
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