Spiders in Cuba

What spiders live in Cuba?

Cuba is the largest and most varied island in the Caribbean: the limestone mogotes of Viñales, the forested Sierra Maestra, the Zapata wetlands, dry scrub on the cays and a long agricultural spine of cane, tobacco and citrus. That range supports a strongly endemic spider fauna layered over wide-ranging tropical species found across the Antilles.

Most of what visitors notice falls into three groups. Orb-weavers hang wheel webs across paths and between citrus trees, the showiest being the silver argiope with its mirror-bright abdomen and a zigzag ribbon of silk through the web. Jumping spiders patrol sunlit walls and palm fronds in short, deliberate hops; the large, iridescent regal jumper is the one people photograph. And flat, long-legged huntsman spiders sprint across kitchen walls at night — the classic Caribbean scare that is really a harmless cockroach hunter.

Underneath sit the ground-dwellers: tarantulas of the genus Phormictopus in burrows and rock cavities, wolf spiders on bare soil, crab spiders inside flowers, and nursery web and fishing spiders at the edges of ponds, canals and the Zapata marshes, hunting across the water surface rather than in a web.

Which Cuban spiders are actually dangerous?

Widows, and nothing else. Latrodectus is the only genus on the island whose venom is medically significant, which in practice means two spiders: the native black widow Latrodectus mactans — glossy, globular, with a red hourglass underneath, the viuda negra of Cuban gardens — and the brown widow, tan to charcoal with an orange hourglass and a spiky, golf-ball-shaped egg sac, now spread through the whole Caribbean. Both sit under things: patio furniture, meter boxes, rolled hoses, the rim of a planter.

Widow venom is a neurotoxin. A bite feels like a pinprick, then cramping muscle pain builds over an hour and spreads to the abdomen, back or thighs, with sweating, nausea and restlessness. Brown widow bites are usually milder and often stay local; the black widow group causes the stronger reactions. Almost everyone recovers with hospital pain relief, and antivenom is kept for severe cases.

The original version of this page put the Cuban bronze tarantula and the Sicariidae at the top of its danger list. Both claims are wrong. Phormictopus auratus is a large, slow, burrow-dwelling tarantula whose venom is medically insignificant — a defensive bite hurts mechanically, because the fangs are big. And no recluse is established in Cuba: the Chilean recluse rendered below is a spider of Chile, Peru and Argentina, and the brown recluse belongs to the central United States. Necrotic sores blamed on recluses here are usually bacterial skin infections that need a doctor rather than a spider hunt.

The yellow sac spider is grouped with the recluses in that inherited list but belongs to a different family, and its bite is a sharp, wasp-like sting that fades in a day or two. The six-spotted fishing spider below is a big but harmless pond hunter, and chiefly a North American animal — whatever long-legged spider you meet on a Cuban canal bank, the family is not dangerous.

Where you meet them in Cuba

Houses, casas and hotel rooms

Cuban buildings are open to the outside far more than northern ones, so spiders come and go freely. Cobweb spiders take ceiling corners, cellar spiders hang in bathrooms, jumping spiders hunt on window frames, and the huntsman appears on a wall at night and is gone by morning. None is a threat, and the huntsman eats cockroaches at a rate no insecticide matches. See our guide to house spiders.

Gardens, patios and farmland

This is where widows live. Anything raised a few centimetres off the ground and left undisturbed — stacked pots, a bicycle frame, the underside of a bench — is a candidate site, which is why gloves matter more than fear. The same gardens carry orb webs between shrubs and crab spiders motionless in citrus blossom.

Forest, caves and wetlands

Away from settlements, tarantulas use burrows and rock cavities and are usually seen crossing a track at night after rain. Cuba's caves hold specialised spiders near their entrances, several endemic, and the Zapata marshes and rice canals support fishing spiders that run on the water film and dive when threatened.

When Cuban spiders are most obvious

There is no autumn peak of the northern kind here; the rhythm follows rain. The wet season from roughly May to October brings the insect flush that feeds spiders, and webs are largest from late summer into early autumn when female orb-weavers are fully grown. The drier months from November to April push many species into crevices, litter and burrows.

Hurricanes matter more than the calendar. A storm strips webs, floods burrows and drives ground spiders indoors for a few days, which is why reports of large spiders in houses spike after heavy weather.

Look-alikes, misnames and non-spiders

Two entries on older Cuban lists are continental North American species: the bold jumper Phidippus audax, whose island counterpart is the regal jumper, and the rustic wolf spider Trochosa ruricola, a Palearctic spider about ten millimetres long that could never rank among Cuba's biggest — that title goes to the bronze tarantula. The "Diminutella huntsman" of the same list is not a recognised species name; Cuba's huntsman spiders are Heteropoda and Olios.

Among living animals, the confusion that matters is pale immature cobweb spiders taken for widows. A widow female is glossy and globular with the hourglass underneath, and her egg sac is the surest clue of all. Tailless whip scorpions — flat brown arachnids with long feeler-like front legs — live behind shutters and in cave mouths across Cuba and are reported constantly as monstrous spiders; they have neither venom glands nor silk.

Common Spiders in Cuba

• Swift Crab Spiders (Mecaphesa Celer)
• Hentz Jumping Spiders (Hentzia Palmarum)
• Bold Jumping Spiders / Bold Jumpers Spiders (Phiddipus audax)
• Regal Jumper Spiders (Phidippus regius)
• Silver Argiope or Silver Garden Orb Weaver Spiders (Argiope argentata)

Biggest Spiders in Cuba

• Rustic Wolf Spider (Trochosa Ruricola)
• Cuban Bronze Tarantula (Phormictopus Auratus)

Most Venomous Spiders in Cuba

Sicariidae

Sac SpidersBlack-Footed Yellow Sac (Cheiracanthium inclusum)Identify the black-footed yellow sac spider (Cheiracanthium inclusum): size, colour, its silk retreat, where it lives, and what its bite reaSicariidae SpidersChilean Recluse (Loxosceles laeta)Identify the Chilean recluse (Loxosceles laeta): size, six eyes, faint violin, where it lives, and why its bite causes more systemic loxosce

Less Venomous Spiders in Cuba

Nursery Web Spiders (Pisauridae)

Sicariidae SpidersChilean Recluse (Loxosceles laeta)Identify the Chilean recluse (Loxosceles laeta): size, six eyes, faint violin, where it lives, and why its bite causes more systemic loxosceNursery Web SpidersSix-spotted Fishing (Dolomedes triton)Identify the six-spotted fishing spider (Dolomedes triton): size, stripes, how it walks on water, its range, and whether its bite is dangero

Living with Cuba's spiders

The risk here is low enough that spraying is rarely worth it. These spiders eat mosquitoes, cockroaches and moths, and a cleared corner is reoccupied within a fortnight.

• Wear gloves for garden furniture, meter boxes, hoses and pot rims — that is where widows sit.
• Knock down widow webs and remove the egg sacs rather than leaving them on the ground.
• Shake out shoes, hats and bags left outside overnight.
• Let the huntsman stay: it is the best cockroach control a Cuban kitchen has.

For the wider regional picture, the list for Jamaica overlaps heavily with Cuba's, and our round-up of the world's most venomous spiders puts Caribbean widows in context.