<P> A brown recluse's stance on a flat surface is usually with all legs radially extended . When alarmed it may lower its body, withdraw the forward two legs straight rearward into a defensive position, withdraw the rearmost pair of legs into a position for lunging forward, and stand motionless with pedipalps raised . The pedipalps in mature specimens are dark and quite prominent and are normally held horizontally forward . When threatened it usually flees, seemingly to avoid a conflict, and if detained may further avoid contact with quick horizontal rotating movements or even resort to assuming a lifeless pose (playing dead). The spider does not usually jump unless touched brusquely, and even then its avoidance movement is more of a horizontal lunge rather than a vaulting of itself entirely off the surface . When running, the brown recluse does not leave a silk line behind, which would make it more easily tracked when it is being pursued . Movement at virtually any speed is an evenly paced gait with legs extended . When missing a leg or two it appears to favor this same gait, although (presumably when a leg has been injured) it may move and stand at rest with one leg slightly withdrawn . During travel it stops naturally and periodically when renewing its internal hydraulic blood pressure that, like most spiders, it requires to renew strength in its legs . </P> <P> Brown recluse spiders build asymmetrical (irregular) webs that frequently include a shelter consisting of disorderly thread . They frequently build their webs in woodpiles and sheds, closets, garages, plenum spaces, cellars, and other places that are dry and generally undisturbed . When dwelling in human residences they seem to favor cardboard, possibly because it mimics the rotting tree bark which they inhabit naturally . They have also been encountered in shoes, inside dressers, in bed sheets of infrequently used beds, in clothes stacked or piled or left lying on the floor, inside work gloves, behind baseboards and pictures, in toilets, and near sources of warmth when ambient temperatures are lower than usual . Human - recluse contact often occurs when such isolated spaces are disturbed and the spider feels threatened . Unlike most web weavers, they leave these lairs at night to hunt . Males move around more when hunting than the females, which tend to remain nearer to their webs . The spider will hunt for firebrats, crickets, cockroaches, and other soft - bodied insects . </P> <P> The range lies roughly south of a line from southeastern Nebraska through southern Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana to southwestern Ohio . In the southern states, it is native from central Texas to western Georgia and north to Kentucky . </P> <P> Despite rumors to the contrary, the brown recluse spider has not established itself in California or anywhere outside its native range . This directly contradicts numerous sensationalized media reports of bites occurring where these spiders are absent (and no specimens were found), such as a 2014 report from Thailand, where a man was claimed to have died from a brown recluse bite . Over the last century, occasional spiders have been intercepted in various locations where they have no known established populations; these spiders may be transported fairly easily, though the lack of established populations well outside the natural range also indicates that such movement has not led to colonization of new areas, after decades of opportunities . Note that the occurrence of brown recluses in a single building (such as a warehouse) outside of the native range is not considered a successful colonization; such single - building populations can occur (e.g., in several such cases in Florida), but do not spread, and can be easily eradicated . </P>

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