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Myths about Identifying Spiders
Myth: I found a photo of a spider species that looks just like the spiders in my house, so now I know what they are.
Fact: In other words, you have one color picture
of one species of spider, and this magically enables you to tell how that species
differs from hundreds of others of which you do not have pictures? Sorry,
but it doesn't work that way.
In the first place, as noted elsewhere, naked-eye appearance
is more deceptive than useful, in spider identification, to anyone but an experienced
specialist. Furthermore, the appearance of one specimen of one species will
give you no information on the differences
between that species and similar ones, and no idea of how variable
the species in question might be.
The geographic range of the species must also
be considered. Even if your spider from Texas "looks just like" a photo from
Belgium, the chances are that you have not made a correct identification.
No spider can be considered reliably identified unless a spider specialist has
examined it under a microscope. Not even if it's identical to that photo you
found, right down to the very last spot!
Myth: Physicians, exterminators, and entomologists can identify spiders.
Fact: Only arachnologists
have the highly specialized skills needed to identify spiders, which take years
of concentrated study to learn. To be sure, a few entomologists (insect specialists)
and a very small number of physicians are also arachnologists, but the vast
majority are not.
No medical school teaches even the basics of real spider identification; the
most that medical students are likely to get is misinformation about identification
by so-called "markings." Sad to say, numerous
physicians have mis-diagnosed patients with
mysterious sores, without even seeing a spider, as having been bitten by spider
species which did not even exist in their locations.
Most pest control operators have very inadequate
training even in the identification of common pest insects; few are trained
entomologists, and I know of only one in the United States who is an arachnologist.
Misidentifications by non-arachnologists are the source of a very large number
of false spider reports and "scares" in the news media.
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2003, Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture, University of Washington, Box 353010, Seattle, WA 98195, USA Phone: 206-543-5590 Photos © as credited |
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to Spider Myths author, Rod Crawford This page last updated 2 September, 2010 This site best viewed at 800 x 600 using IE 5.0 or above. |