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Wolf or other?
I found this spider one morning moving though the grass. It’s overall size is about as big as a Gatoraid top and it seems to be highly aggressive. Most of the wolf spider I have seen only want to make a quick getaway but this one lifts it’s front four lets in an almost vertical stance, very similar to that of the funnel web spider in Austraila The longest of it’s two legs in the front, upon close examination, has small hooks almost identical to the stingers found on scorpions (have not seen that before in a wolf spider here in Virginia, most of them are of a brown color variation and have no "claws" that are visible. Here is one of the clearer images I shot.
Any help on this one is greatly appreciated….
Joe

Hi Joe,
Your photo looks like a Trapdoor Spider to me. Definitely not a Wolf Spider. I believe Trapdoor Spiders are related to Funnel Web Spiders. Both build a silk line burrow and wait for prey. Your specimen looks like a male who is probably searching for a mate. We recently got a letter from Florida from a reader who has found two dead in his pool.

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