Loxosceles

A genus of venomous spiders, the brown spiders, marked by a fiddle-shaped pattern on the cephalothorax, and found chiefly in South America. They inflict a highly ulcerative, spreading dermal lesion at the site of the bite (loxoscelism). Important species include L. laeta, the Chilean brown recluse spider; L. reclusus, the brown recluse spider of North America; and L. rufipes, the Peruvian brown spider. [G. loxos, oblique, + skelos, leg]

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Lox·os·ce·les läk-'säs-ə-.lēz n a genus of spiders (family Loxoscelidae) native to So. America that includes the brown recluse spider (L. reclusa)

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Lox·os·ce·les (lok-sosґə-lēz) a genus of six-eyed spiders of the family Loxoscelidae, whose bite causes loxoscelism. L. laeґta is the brown spider of South America and L. recluґsa is the brown recluse spider of North America.