Caught this big fellow about an hour ago. I tried to find some information on Google about what kind of spider it is, but it is hard to compare a picture of a spider to a real thing, and descriptions are all so vague. From my readings, it could be a brown recluse, a giant house spider, a hobo spider (that would be scary), a funnel web spider, or a wolf spider. It could also be some spider I have not read about.

A brief description:

• Color: brown throughout.
• Marks: no marks on the legs. A white/light-colored line runs down the middle of the head. A small circular mark near the center of the head.
• Size: the body is about 1.1cm long and 0.4cm wide (7/16" long and 5/32" wide). With the legs extended, it is about 1.6-2.2 cm (5/8-7/8 inches) long. The head takes up about 60 percent of its body size.
• Hairy
• In the second picture you can clearly see the "5th pair of legs" that comes out of its mouth: they are quite long.

I caught it using the classic method of covering it with a tupperware and sliding a piece of paper on the other side. After I turned the tupperware right-side-up, I discovered that it has an apparently problem at climbing out of the container: the walls might be too slippery for it. But I take no chances and thus wrapped the tubberware in cellophane.

Right now it is still in the plastic-covered tubberware on my desk. It is making me squirm every time it decides to make a sudden move. It likes to sit around for a long period of time (15-20 minutes or so) and then suddenly run quickly to the other side of the tupperware, hoping that the "barrier" has magically disappeared.

The pictures kinda suck because they are taken with the webcam attached to my mom's laptop. It is hard to hold the webcam in my right hand and hitting print-screen with my left while the spider refuses to sit still. And the cellophane produces weird optical and lighting effects in the picture.

Update: with a helpful cue from jtu, her friends, and BP, I read up a bit on the species known as Wolf Spider. I repositioned the little fellow and examined its face with a magnifying glass, and it turns out that it has the characteristic "three-rows of eyes" (though the four-in-a-row anterior eyes are so small and damn hard to see). So it is confirmed that what I captured is a Wolf Spider. Seeing that they have a reputation of being beneficial spiders in general (and help keep other spiders away), I've released it into my back yard.

I've also taken some photos of it using my Pentax SLR and a ton of magnifying lenses. It is probably lethargic from being captured, so in most of the pictures it is all curled up. If I managed to get any nice ones I will substitute those in instead of the two pictures above.