Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Tonight I found a fairly large, brown spider outside of my door. It's body was close to an inch long, it had some thin streaky black stripes on it's back, and a black with two white dots pattern on it's underside. It's legs were a little over an inch and were an on-off pattern of brownish red and tan. Was this a recluse? And how much damage can it do to a human if bitten? I know they are venomous, but I wanted to make sure I had the right spider before I started stressing over it. According tot he pictures I did see online, it looked very much like a brown recluse. Any help would be great, thanks.

For info on the brown recluse spider, go here : www.hobospider.org

For a page on identifying the brown reculse, go here:
http://dermatology.cdlib.org/DOJvol5num2/special/recluse.html

And for pictures of what a brown recluse bite can do to you, go here:

http://www.saniainen.com/spider/

Tasty.. are those real photos though? I really doubt someone would just let an open wound get that bad without seeking medical attention and/or getting his finger amputated. Just doesn't sound right that someone would rather make a photo gallery instead of getting it taken care of.