Big Ole Spider

Here's something you don't want to meet in a dark alley, much less in your daughter's room. Believe me, I earned my keep for the month catching this bugger. He is still occupying the jar at the moment, and he's giving me no less then eight dirty looks as I create this page.

My wife found this spider crawling about like he owned the place in Sierra's room. My first thought when I saw it was "Where's my 12 gauge?" Then reason set in as I remembered my Nikon Coolpix 950. This spider can thank a digital camera for the fact that it is still breathing. Or crawling. Or whatever it is that giant spiders do.

I grabbed a yardstick, a toy shovel, and a mayonnaise jar (hey, you work with what's on hand, ok?) and herded the monster inside. A little bit of aluminum foil and "TA DA!", problem solved.

Except that one question remains. I have no idea what kind of spider this is. It looks like the many garden spiders in our flower beds, but the problem is this: it is the size of the many garden spiders in our flower beds all put together. That's a 12 ounce jar it is sitting in, and it looks a bit cramped. So if you know what type of spider this is, please e-mail me so I can either set it free or mail it to a laboratory.

In Chernobyl.

	If he looked like the jumping sort, I'd have been running away at this moment.
A full-sized crop of the above picture.
	You see what I mean by "BIG OLE SPIDER"?
He wants out. Bad.
	Not a chance, pal.
He's got a decent reach, but the jar will hold him. At least I hope so.
	I couldn't get a shot of his fangs, but believe you me, they are quite to scale.
This was a shot I took just to take it, but it turned out more interesting then I thought it would...
	This is a cropping from the above picture. Looks almost mechanical, doesn't he?
Here's looking at you, kid.
	Here's thinking of biting you, kid.
Spiders can't operate aluminum foil and rubber bands, right? RIGHT???
	Six of the eight eyes. All the better to see you with, my dear.

Update 08-29-99

(I received this E-Mail, which solves the mystery. The spider has long since been set free. FAR from my house.)

It's a large species of the genus Hogna (formerly Lycosa), perhaps H. caroliniensis (one of the largest US spiders). The species of Hogna usually cannot be identified without details not visible in your photographs.

Lycosids are commonly known as Wolf Spiders. If yours is H. caroliniensis, you can call it the Carolina Wolf Spider. The large species are burrowers, making holes in soil about 3/4" in diameter and up to a foot deep. There is often a "turret" of grass, leaves and silk around the burrow entrance. Some species hunt from the burrow while others wander about seeking prey.

Your specimen seems to be a female that has not fed well recently (the abdomen is rather small), or who has recently laid a batch of eggs. Female wolf spiders carry the bags of eggs around with them until they hatch. Then the young spiders climb up on Mom's back and are carried around until they are large enough to fend for themselves.

Even the large wolf spiders are pretty harmless, giving a defensive bite only if they are confined or pinched (if you tried to pick it up with your fingers, for example). The bite is painful at first, but certainly less trouble than a bee sting (by the way, bees kill more people each year in the US than do spiders).

If you want to keep your spider for a while, give it a wad of paper towel soaked in water so it can drink. Try feeding it soft-bodied insects about half its own size. It will do better in a small aquarium or large jar with some sand in the bottom. I suspect it will not live much longer in any case, since the life span is only about two years and adults die soon after reproducing.

Noelle Prince Shear

BIG OLE SPIDER