Wolf Spider (Lycosidae)

Well, I found a female Hogna helluo on a school Earth Science field trip, and I decided to keep her. (Sorry about the quality of some of the pics, my camera is not working correctly.)

Hogna helluo:

Nice! the pics look good.

Thanks, tfleming.
She's one of the most aggressive wolf spiders I've seen. (And believe me, I've seen quite a few.)

Seems like she's about 3" good size?
Evil looking indeed

Because she's a H. helluo, she's not that big, I'm guessing 1.5 inches. I'll try to post more pics of her soon.

I saw a huge Hoga carolinensis up here about a year ago though, that one was about 4.5 inches! I used to see a lot of H. carolinensis when I lived in Virginia.

I see.. and she readily pounce on her preys like there's no tomorrow..

She's a great catch!

Scorpion19981000, I'd get ready for some spiderlings if I were you.

That's what I'm hoping for.

UPDATE: She just laid an egg sac. It was interesting to watch the process. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics. (My camera has all but died on me.)

Well, I got a couple of crappy pics before my camera died. I probably won't be posting new pictures any time soon.
Anyway, here are the pics:

Wow, how kool is that?

UPDATE:

Her egg sac has been getting larger the past few days. I transferred her to a container with more floor space, to make separating the spiderlings from the mother easier.

Spoiler:

Well the egg sac hatched a couple days ago, but I didn't get pics until now.

Spoiler:

Those are some great shots!!! Congrats.

Thanks, tfleming.

UPDATE:

7/17/2012
Most of the spiderlings have dismounted from the mother's abdomen.

7/22/2012
All spiderlings have dismounted from the mother, most have spread throughout the entire enclosure while some remain close to the mother and occasionally walk on her. The mother will be removed within a few days and the spiderlings will be separated into smaller groups shortly after.

7/24/2012
Mother separated from spiderlings.

7/25/2012
Spiderlings separated into smaller groups.

8/3/2012
Cannibalism starting to occur.

8/8/2012
Unavoidable losses due to cannibalism. I'm guessing about 20 (perhaps less) survived. I've released about half of them and I am now left with 10 healthy individuals. (They are in separate containers.) They are all eating and doing well, the mother is doing good as well.