Any spider enthusiasts on here?

[Kr0m]

I've spent a bit of time looking for what type of spider I found in the garage today (relatives seen it outside the day before). Normally, the biggest I've ever seen is about the size of a quarter or a tad larger. This one is definitely a different species and a hell of a lot bigger than ones we normally find around here in Nova Scotia, Canada (east coast). Any references I can find, almost make me thing it's a species of Wolf Spider but I'm still not sure.


I went to take the BBQ cover off of the BBQ and this puppy was on it. The picture doesn't do it any justice but I was able to place a coke can near by to give it some sort of perspective. I know spiders grow to be quite large in warmer climates and since we're not a warmer climate (spring, summer, fall, winter), I was quite shocked to see one this big hehehe.
(For you animal lovers... I didn't kill it. I took care of it like an normal Canadian would... I scooped it up on the end of a hockey stick and took it into the woods)

 

[Unleashed]

I would have thought Wolf Spider too, but I'm not hot on spiders, prefer my scorpion.
Put it on www.arachnoboards.com and see what they say.

 

[tdinc]

Try emailing this guy

http://www.spiderzrule.com/index.html




just found more info on the spider. this was a question mailed in to the spiders rule site and mentions Nova Scotia ahhh Google is good

#622 Hi, I live in Southern Ontario; this beauty has been staked out inside my garden shed for a while, usually at head level where the roof meets the wall. The other day it molted (see second picture). It seems aware when you get close but doesn't back away. Is this a wolf spider?



As I cannot get a good look at the eyes, I cannot be certain whether this is a wolf spider (family Lycosidae) or a closely related nursery-web spider (family Pisauridae), sometimes called fishing spiders or dock spiders (see http://www.peterspics.net/gallery/Butterflies_etc/Dock-spider.jpg Ed Saugstad, retired entomologist; Sinks Grove, WV
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#622 looks like a wharf spider or fishing spider...they are not so common in Nova Scotia where I am, but I found one here last year. I gave it to the Museum of Natural history and they id'd it. Dolomedes sp. I believe. They tend to be quite large compared to our other local spiders. Shannon
Department Of Physiology and Biophysics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS