Spider Myth Resources

Photo: Henry C. McCook
Photo: Henry C. McCook

General Information

Regional Resources

Medically Important Spiders

  • University of California Hobo Spider Page: This page contains some more recent information on the hobo spider, which has not been found in California. The old "hobo spider site" is obsolete.
  • Nina Sandlin's Brown Recluse Page: This article from the American Medical Association is the sole fully accurate general brown recluse information resource I know of. Most of the others are so bad they make me cringe!
  • eMedicine's Atrax Page: A fully authoritative medical account of Australian "funnel-web" envenomation, countering much of the hype on these spiders.
  • Demystifying Spider Venom and Spider Bites: Survey of all proven medically important spiders by Dutch arachnologist Ed Nieuwenhuys.
  • British Arachnological Society: Irresponsible British news media characterize false widow spiders (Steatoda spp.) as a horrible threat to life and limb; these articles give the facts about these practically harmless spiders.

Spider Myths

About (and by) Rod Crawford

Photo Sources:

Other photos are used courtesy of the photographers (who retain all rights), as credited. The photos by Bob Thomson were given by him to Rod Crawford (author of this page); the J.W. Thompson Co. photo of a yellow flower spider and the Margaret Davidson drawing of a hobo spider belong to the Burke Museum. A few drawings are by the author, but most are adapted from public domain sources, either non-copyright or copyright expired. Many of the line drawings are by classic arachnologist James Henry Emerton (1847-1930) in his late 19th century works on New England spiders.

Spider Myths

"Everything that 'everybody knows' about spiders is wrong!" Rod Crawford sets the record straight with Spider Myths.

a man stands in the forest holding a bug catching net

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Photo: Rachel Ormiston/Burke Museum
Photo: Rachel Ormiston/Burke Museum