Backyard Spider Identification?

[chongislove]

Found this spider under our old lawnmower. Its body as about 1 inch long, and from leg to leg its about 2 inches. Biggest spider i've ever seen around here (central New Jersey). Any idea what it is or any info about it?

 

[insect714]

Looks like a bit of a dark coloration of a Rabidosa rabida (Rabid Wolf Spider) the one I have looks like:

 

[jsloan]

Nice spider.

Here's a good paper that describes the representatives of this genus in the US: http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v22_n2/JoA_v22_p138.pdf

Of the five species of Rabidosa in the US, two have a solid dark median stripe on the top of the abdomen, Rabidosa punctulata and R. carrana. Your specimen from NJ is most likely R. punctulata, but you can make sure by the coloring on the underside of the abdomen:

R. punctulata: the underside is "brownish yellow with irregular pattern of large black spots:" *

http://bugguide.net/node/view/91575/bgpage

R. carrana: the underside is "black with three pairs of white spots:" *

http://bugguide.net/node/view/89487/bgpage

(* from the paper, pg 142)