Can't indentify Spider

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Availingfaith Virginia Beach, VA May 27, 2011

I hope you all can help. I apologize for not being able to post a photo.

I have looked and looked and cannot find what kind of spider I have been seeing in my house the last few weeks. I am nervous it may be harmful to humans (although I know black widows and brown recluse are supposed to to be the only poisonous spiders in my area). I live in Virginia, (southeast) and have small wetlands behind my house. I have many spiders make it into the house but over the past few weeks I have seen 3 of an unknown species.

The single most telling characteristic was it had what looked to be missing a leg on one side but the front most leg on the left side (almost center) was enlarged at the second to last joint, longer than the others and the tip was very thin and white. It looked like a stinger. The spider used this unusual leg to feel in front of it before moving.

It was either very dark brown or black with no easily visible patterns. To a lay person, it looked like a stinger and the enlarged section of the leg was the poison sac. The small white tip looked sharp. I'm not convinced it was a stinger, but I can't figure why there would be an enlarged section of the leg a very short distance from the tip. By enlarged, I mean it kinda looked like an oversize forearm.

It had 8 legs in total (including the stinger / feeler / like leg. It was the same overall size as a common wood spider. I have no idea what type of spider this can be and have come across 3 so far. I used a cup to move them back outside.

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LadyAshleyR Oakland, MD May 27, 2011

I would have a hard time IDing your spider without a photo, however I thought it would bring you some comfort to know that brown recluse are NOT found in your area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_recluse_spider

A lot of spider bites are blamed on them, when its really a case of misidentification due to a bad reputation.

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