USA Spider Identification

Did you find a spider in the U.S and you would like to identify it? Then you are at the right place. This page will help you identify your spider. Simply read through the content on this site and answer the questions below, and you will hopefully identify your spider. If not, you can still reach out to us (more details below).

Are you dealing with a venomous spider?

Let’s first start off by eliminating the possibility that you are dealing with a potentially dangerous spider. There are only two medically significant spider genera in the United States: Widows and recluse spiders. Look at the following pictures below. Does your spider look like any of these? If yes or if you are unsure, click on the pictures to see more pictures and learn more about the venomous spiders and their range in the U.S.:

A small brown spider in the Southern U.S. with thin long legs and a violin shape on its back may be a brown recluse.	A small black spider with a round abdomen and red (hourglass-shaped) markings may be a black widow.	A small brown spider with a round abdomen and red (hourglass-shaped) markings may be a brown widow.

If your spider doesn’t look like one of these – Great! Then you are most likely dealing with a harmless spider. Let’s identify it!

USA Spider Identification Tool

Please answer the questions below and you will get one or more possible results based on your answers. In a few rare cases, you might get no result. If this happens, you could try the spider identification tool over again or upload your spider pictures in the comment section below, so we can identify it for you. You are also welcome to leave a comment or feedback about the spider identificator (criticism is also welcome, we are working hard to improve).

Did the tool not help you to (correctly) identify your spider? Let us help you identify your spider!

Did you also look through the list of common spiders for your state on this site and didn’t find any information?

Simply upload a picture of your spider as a comment to this post below in the “Leave a reply” section at the bottom of the page – no sign-up or login necessary. Along with the photograph, please add the following information:

1. Description of the spider (helps with the identification but is not mandatory)
2. City and U.S. State where the spider was found
3. Your name how you want to be credited on our website

By uploading a picture, you are giving us permission to use the picture on this site. Please only upload pictures you own the copyright to. Do not upload pictures taken from other web sources without proper crediting. Any pictures we use, we will place your name and city where it was found beneath the picture as the photographer.

When uploading your picture, you are required to enter your email address. Your email address will not be posted publicly. As soon as we have found an ID for your spider, you will be notified by email to the email address provided by you.

Consider a small donation

USAspiders has always been free and will stay free – so have the thousands of spider identifications we have made over the last years. We are always happy to spend a fair amount of our days during the summer months looking at reader images, identifying spiders. It’s what we love to do! If you can, and if you would like to support us, we would highly appreciate a small donation through Paypal. Any small amount is great! Thanks!

Taking the perfect picture of your spider

The more detail can be seen, the better. It is easiest for others or for us to identify your spider if the photograph is taken from the top of the spider. If both body parts, the colors, and the markings are visible, it will go a long way to getting the spider correctly identified. If you have a good camera and are not afraid to get a good close macro shot of its eye pattern, that can also help immensely. Some species can only be distinguished by a close look at their eye patterns.

Please upload the picture as its own file to the comment form below. Our upload form allows all standard image files up to a size of 15 MB. It is not possible to upload .zip files or more than one picture per upload. If you have more than one picture of your spider sighting, please upload them separately and copy the description text including the location along with it.

Backup: Email contact of USAspiders.com

If for some reason, the upload form doesn’t work or you prefer that your spider picture is not published publicly, you can email us with the information to [email protected] and we will get back to you with an ID via email. However, we do prefer that you upload your picture in the comment form below as it will benefit all our readers.