I live in Northern Indiana and I’ve seen 3 of these spiders in my house before, all different ones. When I first saw it, it scared me since it’s a pretty big spider in my opinion from what I usually have seen around here. This spider was bigger than a quarter all together. I know it’s not the best picture, but this is it on the wall a while ago. Also was a very fast spider so I couldn’t capture it too well. Are they harmless? I woke up with a bite today and then I remembered this!
2 Answers
The spider on your ceiling looks like a sac spider, more a Cheiracanthiid (like a yellow sac spider) than a clubionid (a leafcurling sac spider).
But the colour contrast of the dark red thorax to yellow abdomen suggests it may be broad-faced sac spider, which a is actually classified closer to a wolf spider than to the above two sac spiders. It is considered non-aggressive and non-harmful to humans.
It is hard to tell from the photo whether the cephalothorax is actually red or just dark. So you are probably the best judge from here. Compare what you saw to:
- trachelas tranquillus (broad-faced sac spiders) https://bugguide.net/node/view/26291/bgimage?from=72
- cheiracanthium (yellow sac spider) https://bugguide.net/node/view/3383/bgimage?from=0
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$\begingroup$ I would second Trachelas tranquillus. Nice flat face and two-toned body (dark reddish front and whitish back). These are commonly found in houses during the fall (when they come in to overwinter) and the spring (when they re-emerge with the return of warmer weather). They can bite, but rarely do so without extreme provocation. Not significantly venomous to humans. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 20, 2020 at 18:03
I'm also from Northern Indiana. There's only two spider species in the area that are venomous: the Brown Recluse and the Black Widow. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I'm fairly certain that its not a Recluse, and it's definitely not a Black Widow. My best guess would be a Barn Tunnel Weaver.
For future reference: https://spiderid.com/locations/united-states/indiana/ has a list species, with pictures.
https://www.in.gov/dnr/entomolo/4542.htm for more info on Brown Recluses and Black Widows.
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1$\begingroup$ Hi, I'm a moderator here, but really terrible at identifying species besides ones I grow in my garden or those I catch fishing in local lakes. It seems you've provided some good resources, but we like answers here to be self-sufficient since links can break. Can you expand your answer to discuss particular features that led you to a specific ID? $\endgroup$– Bryan Krause ♦Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 18:54
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$\begingroup$ the link provided has a "barn funnel weaver" but no "barn tunnel weaver". The spider in question does not resemble a funnel weaver. It looks like a sac spider. The link is also a very incomplete collection of spiders in Indiana. The link given also does contain trachelas tranquillus (albeit the picture on that site appears to be a very gravid one) but I believe that is what we are looking at here. $\endgroup$– JimNCommented Aug 25, 2020 at 3:39