# Help identify my spider **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 8, 2002, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986 "2002-06-08T17:00:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986/1 "2002-06-08T17:00:58Z")
I live in the northeastern US, and there’s a spider hanging out in the corner of my bathroom. She’s pretty large. It’s about six centimeters across, including very large legs with a ball at the first joint away from the body only. Her abdomen is kind of a narrow cylinder, and pointed at the end. The head is kind of hard to see, because of the HUGE FREAKIN’ SPHERICAL EGG-SAC she is carrying around. I’d like to know what she is, partly out of idle curiousity, and partly because if this species ridiculously venomous, _now_ is clearly the time to sqash. If anyone knows a good all-purpose spider identification website, that would be totally awesome. We have a lot of spiders in our house. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986/2 "2002-06-08T17:18:54Z")
Does it have a web that you can describe at all? Is she shiny or hairy? What about the coloration? Colors help more than just about anything in identifying a spider. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986/3 "2002-06-08T17:33:59Z")
Tangle web, shiny, light brown with no distinctive marks. (Thanks, **Max**!) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986/4 "2002-06-08T18:16:35Z")
Here’s a [spider identification key](http://140.211.62.101/catalog/). Found it through [this](http://www.ufsia.ac.be/Arachnology/Arachnology.html) and [this](http://www.ufsia.ac.be/Arachnology/Pages/Identification.html), which give taxonomy and other information needed to use the key. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986/5 "2002-06-08T18:16:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Podkayne \* > \*\*I live in the northeastern US, and there’s a spider hanging out in the corner of my bathroom. She’s pretty large. It’s about six centimeters across, including very large legs with a ball at the first joint away from the body only. Her abdomen is kind of a narrow cylinder, and pointed at the end. The head is kind of hard to see, because of the HUGE FREAKIN’ SPHERICAL EGG-SAC she is carrying around. > > \*\* I am pro-spider because they keep insect pests to a minimum. But I must say that I would blanch at having a 6 cm. or 2-3/8", spider in the house. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986/6 "2002-06-08T18:40:21Z")
I found that key as well; problem is, it only covers the spiders of northeast Oregon. So far the closest I can come up with is “hobo spider”, but I don’t think that’s it at all. Can you tell us, maybe, how [this picture](http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/district4/MG/hobo2.html) differs from the spider you’re seeing? ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986/7 "2002-06-08T18:42:54Z")
Oh, one other possible you may want to compare with is the [nursery web spider](http://www.losingmylycosa.com/wolfspiders/nursery/gallery/Pisaura_mirabilis_D0774.jpg). They say it carries its egg sac around with it until hatching time is near. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986/8 "2002-06-08T19:44:19Z")
My spider is much more gracile than the nursery web spider or hobo spider. I made a boo-boo in the OP-- I meant to say that its legs are _long_ rather than “large.” It looks more like a daddy-longlegs spider ([Pholcus phalangioides](http://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/cellar_spider.htm), not an opilionid), except that it’s a uniform brown, and has the pointed abdomen, and it’s way bigger than the other daddy-longlegs we have around the house. Looking at the nursery spider, I guess FREAKIN’ HUGE EGG-SAC is a relative term. 🙂 My spidey’s egg-sac is only about 1 1/2 - 2 times as large as its own abdomen. It also looks like a bunch of eggs stuck together, rather than a silk-covered ball. Actually, it looks a little more like [this](http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/Pholcidae/Pholcidae.htm), except that its head seems somewhat smaller, and its egg-sack is just a bit bigger, and its abdoment is pointed at the end. Maybe it’s just an odd-looking, freakishly huge daddy long-legs after all. **David** –most of the size is taken up in legs, so it’s not as freaky as you might think. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-my-spider/112986/9 "2002-06-08T21:51:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Max Torque \* > \*\*I found that key as well; problem is, it only covers the spiders of northeast Oregon. \*\* Whoops, Sorry. I thought I had avoided that site, only to have it sneak up from behind and bite me.