Spider Identification Guide
Use this page to help identify a spider by comparing its size, color, markings, and body shape with our library of spider pictures.
Below, you can also browse visitor-submitted spider photos and identification discussions. While not every match is exact, these examples may help narrow down what you found.
If your concern is a possible bite rather than the spider itself, see our spider bite pictures and treatment information for additional guidance.
Spider Identification Chart: Match What You See
Find the row that sounds most like your spider. A description alone can never confirm a dangerous species, but it can tell you what deserves a closer look. Where you live matters too, since most species keep to known ranges.
| What you see | Most likely spider | Dangerous? | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shiny black, round belly, red hourglass on the underside | Black widow | Yes | Black widow guide |
| Tan or brown, dark violin mark behind the head, plain uniform legs, six eyes | Brown recluse | Yes | Brown recluse identification |
| Tan or brown widow shape, orange hourglass, spiky round egg sacs | Brown widow | Mildly | Brown widow guide |
| Brown or gray, hairy, a lighter stripe down the back, hunts on the ground | Wolf spider | No | Wolf spider guide |
| Black, fuzzy, compact, with a white or orange dot on the back, moves in jumps | Bold jumping spider | No | Jumping spider guide |
| Brown with chevron markings on the abdomen, builds a funnel-shaped web | Hobo spider or another funnel weaver | No, despite the reputation | Hobo spider guide |
| Bright silver belly, hangs under a flat web near water | Silver orb spider | No | Silver orb guide |
| Large yellow-and-black spider with a zigzag band in a wheel web | Garden spider (Argiope) | No | Garden spider guide |
| Long yellow body, golden silk web strung high between trees | Golden silk orb-weaver, the banana spider | No | Banana spider guide |
| Glossy brown, round belly with faint pale marks, messy tangle web indoors | False widow (Steatoda) | Mildly, often mistaken for a widow | Compare photos |
| Bright green, long-legged, in gardens and orchards | Orchard spider, sometimes miscalled a green widow | No | Dangerous spider overview |
| White or yellow spider sitting motionless in a flower | Crab spider | No | Compare photos |
| Huge, fast, tan, in desert country, not in a web | Camel spider, not a true spider at all | No venom | Camel spider facts |
Two honest cautions. First, color and markings vary inside every species, so treat the chart as a starting point and confirm against real photos. Second, range matters more than people expect: a “brown recluse” spotted far outside the central and southern United States is usually a lookalike, most often a wolf spider or a funnel weaver.
If your real question is about a bite rather than the spider, start with the spider bite pictures and bite identification chart instead.
Reader Encounters: Identification Wins From the Archive
Three condensed reader stories that show identification working the way it should: calmly, with a container and a photo, and without anyone getting bitten.
Shawn: the doorway monster was an orb weaver
Shawn walked out his front door into a quarter-bodied spider hanging six inches from his face in a web the size of a card table, and retreated indoors with, in his words, a few choice expletives. With the porch light on it turned into a scene from Charlotte’s Web: a big orb weaver calmly eating a moth in the middle of its wheel. Another reader on this page identified it for him. Startling, harmless, and gone in a few days, which is the usual orb weaver story.
DeeJay: the spiky egg sacs gave it away
DeeJay’s mailbox, wash bucket, porch chair, and bike seat all turned out to be hosting widow spiders, and the round egg sacs covered in spikes, like tiny naval mines, are what identified the brown widows. With an immune-compromised daughter at home she could not fog the place, so it became patrol work: flip the furniture, check the undersides, crush the sacs. The spiky sac is the single most reliable brown widow tell, worth knowing anywhere they are spreading.
Addie: the pat-a-pat in the dark
Addie heard a soft pat-a-pat-a-pat near her pillow at night and talked herself out of it, until it crossed her husband’s head two minutes later. The tan, velvety spider with a two-inch leg span went into a bird-feeder tube and got a portrait taken: a fishing spider, almost certainly a stowaway from a camping trip, big enough to be alarming and harmless enough to release outside. Catch, photograph, compare, release. That is the whole method, and nobody had to get close.
Did anyone identify #246? I found one of them crawling REALLY FAST across the garage floor the other night (seriously, really, really fast). It seemed to curl up around my shoe to attack me as I stepped on it! I haven’t been able to find any other descriptions or pictures about what it might be. Please help! I’m located in Boise, Idaho.
Found this climbing the wall of our garage in Corona, California. It’s actually smaller than another one we found in the pool last week that looked the same. Two kids under five so your help is especially appreciated. Thanks!!!
I have what Sarah #21 has under a roll of tape with a card on top. It looks big but I think it is a coward. It plays dead also. Not at all aggressive but too big to let wonder about the house. Northern California. Should I nix it or show mercy?
Sarah
#21. September 21st, 2007 at 8:17 am
I just sent in a photo of a small white spider(ling)? in a glass which was probably dime sized measuring with legs extended. I am guessing an orb weaver of some sort. big white butt. I turned it loose. just wondered what kink it was. Also, can you recommend a good spider identification book?
thanks, Jane in SLC
i just got bit by a spider…..
it was very tiny… mostly black but had like a sheil on the very back that was white with black spikes
Hey it’s me again it looks like chirsty (20) spider and it kind of scares me
I caught a spider that looks like chirsy’s white with yellow stripes with minor black ones and the legs are banded and i kinow it not a Saint Andrews Cross spider. Please help me
Today I killed a spider that looked quite similar to #911, But I’m not sure whether it was exactly the same, the only thing I’m certain about is the legs which looked exactly the same. And I think the body had quite that shape. and the colours were pretty much the same.
I found it in a shipment from the US (I live in Sweden). It’s interesting to know whether it was dangerous, and how to know.
what kind of spider is this its just like # 95 picture please tell me asap (as soon as possible)
#72 – that’s a wolf spider. it is venemous, but non-agressive. if bitten it does require medical treatment.
I found a large spider in my yard making huge spider webs it looks like the pictures belonging to # 7 and # 67 and need to know if they are poisonous or not. I have very small children and I want to know if there may be more around.
Thanks, Barbara
This big momma was found by the lake house in Pensacola fl. is it a biter?
Please let me know!
I found this spider in my friend’s back garden, right by the back door. Even though the spider fascinates me, it makes me nervous as she has a 13 month old who plays right by the spider!! Is it dangerous?
Thank you for any info!
This spider along with 3 others that look almost like it where found on my patio outside my apartment in Madison, AL. TY! I hope i zoomed in enough for you to identify it. Thanks again
Anybody know what the spider is in Tiffay’s post (1157)? I found three of them recently, I live in Flagstaff AZ, can’t seem to ID it. I have another macro picture if one is needed.
It actually looks kind of like #1157 but with NO hair
I keep finding this particular spider in my basement, its has a white abdomen, bright red legs and head, and its fangs look more like mandibles. Its about 1 inch or more in length. Is it poisonus? Aggressive? PLEASE HELP
Jeff (#220) and Stacey (#222),
These pictures appear to be from the family Steatoda, or false widow spiders. These spiders are harmless.
Tyler (#239)
The spider that you are describing sounds like a Daring Jumping Spider. It is black or brownish in color with 3 spots on its abdomen (2 smaller near the point of the abdomen, one larger towards the head). It is harmless, but can be aggressive. I hope that helps!
Krystal (#147)
That’s what we southerners affectionally call a Crab Spider. They come in many different colors (my personal favorite one is black and white), and are harmless.
To #22 and #72 (Rachel and Michelle):
Please do not panic. Those pictures do NOT look like a Brown Recluse. I don’t see the tell-tale fiddle or violin shape on the cephalothorax (the part right behind the head). Both of these pictures look more like a wolf spider. While venomous, they are non-aggressive spiders that would sooner run then bite. I would not be overly concerned, but if someone does get bitten by one of these spiders, you should notify medical personnel.
I can’t send a photo right now because the spider is nestling in a corner of the glass I trapped it in and the lensing affect is defeating my poor camera’s abilities to take a clear picture…
I am usually quite tolerant of spiders because they eat the real pests that I can’t stand, but this one was skittering across my kitchen floor and sort of rearing up at my cats very aggressively. Since I wasn’t sure if it was poisonous, and I could not keep the two cats off of it, I captured and kept it under the glass rather than my usual catch and release policy.
The spider is mostly red or a deep brick orange. It has black markings – like short stripes – on its abdomen but the front part is mostly solid. Its legs are black and yellow in bands – its 4 rear legs have many smaller bands but its front 4 legs are only black near the base and then solid yellow to the tips so that the tips are almost invisible against the glass. The front of its “face” – what looks like maybe eyes or pincers or antennae – are black. The stomach has similar coloring to the back, although there seems to be an oval/cyllinder shaped brownish area in the very center of the bottom of the abdomen that is hard to distinguish from the rest of the orange.
If I can send a picture later I will. The most distinctive feature was not its looks but its aggressiveness – it ran towards my cats and reared rather than running into a dark corner like most of my eight-legged friends….
Continuation of #1170…I just realized my spider looks a lot like spider #1169 except instead of the white on 1169’s rear legs it is a yellow color. The legs of my spider seem a bit longer and leaner and the abdomen seems shorter but really I was surprised when the page updated and it seemingly pulled a picture of my spider out of thin air.
I was wondering if anyone has identified sonda’s spider, #62? I live in Colorado and I have seen two of these in the past two days. One was crawling across the carpet in the basement and the other one crossed the driveway and crawled under some pave-stones. Are they dangerous?
i found the EXACT same spider as Valerie Kolusk #916 . The only problem with this web site is that everyone is posting photos and questions, but I see NO answers.. Am I missing something here? I want to know what this scary spider is and if i need to do anything about them being around the place.. thanks.
I found this spider making a web late one night , the web was very large and the spider is about the size of a dime. can anyone help to identify this spider?
#70 that is a jewelled spider it is in the orb spider family and is non poisionous.
Hello, I found few spiders identical as the one numbered 62. They were in the living room and kitchen sink of my apartment. I have never seen this kind of spider and had problems identifying it. I have 20 months old doughter and I am very concerned with her safety. Could you please let me know what kind of spider it is. Is there anything I could do to make the apartment less desirable for spiders?
I appreciate your response.
Kate
#21 is a Banded Orb weaving spider non aggressive and non posionous to humans.
what kind of spider was #7
I live in southern California,and i saw a spider in my bath tub. It was mainly brownish and had like red brown legs but the legs weren’t long. it looked like a black widow just it was reddish color. it was about 1.5 inches. i would have taken a picture but it went down the drain before i could take the photo.
Kristi
#1164
That’s a Nursery Web Spider, they’re big enough to hurt if bitten, but not dangerous. Hope this helps!
Kristi
#1164
That’s a Nursery Web Spider, they are big enough to give a painful bite, but aren’t considered dangerous. Hope that helps!
1147 Alchimera, Looks like that could be a Funnel Web Grass Spider.
This spider was found in a warehouse in Northeast MS. It is the size of the end of a pencil eraser.
Thanks,
Duddy
My daughters discovered a spider making a web outside their bedroom window. It is brown with a bulbous body and a black bell shape on a white field on its belly. Toward its rear is an another dark brown bell shape, not on a white field. Total size with legs splayed is about a quarter.
I found a black spider with a white zizgzag on its back. At first it was in the front sitting in his web between the trash can and the house. I moved one of the can to the side of the house and it made its web there.The spider grow in size in about 5 days. I live in Cary, North Carolina. My neighbor had two like that in the back of his house.
I live in Central PA and have had two spiders like this in my basement. I have never seen them this huge in this area. They move rather slowly and I only see them at night.
hi there,
I’m on a vacation in Spain right now, but i’ve seen a very strange spider in our swimming pool today.. i was wondering what kind of spider this could be! the spider has black/dark brown hairy big legs, his body is round and big too (at least i think its his body…) its black and dark red/brown.
now what i think is its head…. it’s in a shape of a water-drop only much bigger, like the nail of a man’s thumb, with 2 large teeth, the head is black/grey, with 4 yellow dots.
hope somebody knows what I’m talking about!
greetings…
my friend took a picture of this spider she found outside her job in sloatsburg, lower new york. she says it was really big. it has 2 yellow stripes running down the sides of its brown body. its 2 front legs are extended forward and are different colored from its body. can someone identify it for me so i can tell her if its poisonous or not? thanks a lot.
I found a black spider with red on the back of her abdomen, guarding an egg case, under the lid of my composter. I moved them both nearby, but off of the composter. The descriptions of black widow spiders say the red is UNDER the abdomen, not on the top, right? The spider is about 1.25 in diameter and we live in North Carolina.
i found baby spiders in my room, i was on my laptop and something bit me they are very small and basically translucent appear to babies and appeared out of nowhere its itchy i cant get a picture of the spiders or the bites because they are minuscule i live in NY are they dangerous and what should i do about them im not a spider person
I found this in my kid’s crib a few minutes ago. She has some bites I thought were mosquito bites until I found the spider. We live in Pennsylvania, but my mom just sent us a box of clothes she got at a yard sale in Georgia which I unpacked near her bed. Is it a bad spider? A biter? Poisonous? Kid has been scratching the crap out of her foot for two days. I saved the spider in a vial. (I wouldn’t be concerned, except I was bitten twice by spiders when I was a child, once by a recluse, and once by something unknown that made a mark and black escher.)
Okay, i don’t have a picture of the spider I saw, sorry about that. This spider was pretty small. It might fit at the end of my fingertip. It was like, a light green and dark green stripped all over its body and on its belly there was an orangish/redish mark that reminded me of the black widow hour-glass shape. I didn’t get a good look at the top of it, because it was in its web up in a corner of a pool that I was swimming in. I’ve never seen one like it before and all of my searches come up with nothing.
Anyways, thanks for the help! — Liz
We found this odd spider outside our home in upstate New York. No one we know has ever seen one like this. Sprawled out it’s larger than a quarter. It’s abdomon is a sulfur yellow and its legs are dark brown and clear striped.
i happened to see this spider on the patio today.
it has tiny hairs and is black and brown with brown stripes on the legs.
no less than 2 inches wide.
we live in Vermont.
appears to be some sort of egg sack being clutched under it. (can we expect to see a bazillion more of these guys around here sometime soon?)
i found this spider and I was wondering what kind it is and if it is poisones or not?? I live in Prescott, Az.
Hi. I sent some photos via email in hopes of an identification.
Michelle
Rae’s spider (1149) looks like a female black widow
well i don’t have a picture but i will explain to you what i found.
my sister and i were in our backyard and we found our dogs sniffing at a baby dead mouse or something. my sister went to pick it up with a leaf and an orange spider came out. i think it looks like(the body not the color) the spider Robyn showed. it was bright orange though. we were by a wood pile if that helps. we thought it was a tick at first. my sister was scared for our dog because he rubbed his back on that spot too.
please help us.
Hi there! I found a spider out at my land that I have never seen before! I’ve been searching sites and found nothing simular. It was not hairy, med size (inch and a half or so). It was slightly translucent, and was a yellowish color with redish stripes on it’s legs with a lemon like body. It was on top of some grasses. Any idea? I’d love to know.
[email removed]
Thanks!