Found a big spider... can someone ID it?

[fiveohatch]

i was just out smoking and found this spider sitting in my driveway so i caught it. can anyone tell me what it is? is it a wolf spider? i'm thinking about keeping it, could i just feed it crickets?

edit: i live in the Bay Area (California) and the spider is bigger than a quarter with the legs spread out. it's probably the biggest non-tarantula spider i've seen around here (that's in 26 years).

on a side note.

i also had the perfect opportunity to catch the widow (she's gravid) that's on the side of my place but i already had this thing in the cd holder. by the time i came back out she was back in her web (she was making more web and on the ground).

 

[NRF]

It´s a male wolf spider and it probably won´t live for long in captivity. And I think it likes females more than crickets...

 

[fiveohatch]

maybe i'll just let it go then tonight.

this is the first time i've ever seen one. it's pretty cool.

 

[stevo]

its long carapace and eyes in three rows (with two big ones) proves this to be a hunting spider!
That to me looks like a rustic wolf spider (trochosa ruricola)

 

[cacoseraph]

see what kind of web work it does

I think it is the exceedingly rare wolf that webs

tegenaria and agenelid spiders make sheet/funnel webs
that is sort of what your guy looks like to me

 

[Mistwalker]

Looks like what we call a "wolf spider" here. The ones we have here, the males you find out wandering and the females live in burrows in soft soil. I've seen them hunting around their burrow, and they carry their eggsack around with them.

 

[ScorpDemon]

see what kind of web work it does

I think it is the exceedingly rare wolf that webs

tegenaria and agenelid spiders make sheet/funnel webs
that is sort of what your guy looks like to me

theres tons of them here.. the spider in the pic that is.. so if they turn out to be the rare wolf that webs.. and anyone wants more.. i can hook you up..

i usually find then in trash piles, old appliances in junkyards, under plastic sheeting, carpet i have laying around in the edge of the woods at my parents house, places like that.. dont recall seeing any webs.. but when flipping and searching i could have destroyed the webs