The first spider had been living outside my back door in a big, round web. He is about the size of a quarter (counting legs and body) and is all white, but covered with black spots. I have been meaning to snap a picture of him before posting, but I never got around to it and now he has moved away. For one day only, a relative of his set up a neighboring web.
The second spider was down in the basement (cool and dry). He was a little bigger than a quarter, with long legs. His body was dark-brown and thin. The front body part (segment?) had a light-brown marking on it. The marking wasn’t interesting (like an hour-glass or Whistler’s mother); it was just a line or blob. The back body part tapered off to almost a point. He moved very quickly.
I am sorry that I don’t have pictures - I know that would have made my question a lot easier for you all. Thanks!
The first one sounds like Nesticus cellulanus, the only common web-weaving North American spider I know of which answers your description. Large abdomen, white with black spots, likes high places.
The second one I really couldn’t tell you without a picture of the spider, and probably not even then, unless it’s a Brown Recluse, Loxosceles reclusa. They have somewhat elongated abdomens, and their first segment has a lighter brown fiddle-shaped marking. Brown recluse spiders are venomous, occasionally causing large necrotic wounds at the bite site, although more usually just a painful red spot. But you mentioned that the abdomen tapers to a point- it’s probably not a recluse, then, since while longer than wide, a recluse’s abdomen is rounded.
