My Beautiful Carolina Wolf Spider

[LadyShia77]

Hello again. My early birthday present arrived today. He/she was ordered from Underground Reptiles and they promised they would try to get me a female, but that there were no guarantees. I'm having a hard time figuring out if this is a fully grown wolf spider and if it's male or female. I'm almost leaning towards male, but could be wrong. I can't get a good look at its pedipalps. The pic of when he/she was first unboxed and they have since been placed in their enclosure. He/she has gorgeous orange chelicerae. I was hoping for a female, but I'm excited either way. I can try to get more pics later once he/she is more settled. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[dogpack]

Congratulations! I am unfamiliar with this nnspecies. Please keep me posted, thanks.

 

[LadyShia77]

A couple more pics. They're not the best, unfortunately. Didn't realize so much substrate had gotten on the sides of the enclosure. I thought I had gotten it all. In case anyone is wondering, my spider ended up arriving before the decor for the enclosure did lol. I'll try to get better pics later. It's still munching on crickets in these pics and has still been chilling in the same spot lol. I'm starting to think it may be a sub-adult.

 

[dogpack]

What attracted you to this species?

 

[Room of arachnids]

Looks female for sure. Legspan?

 

[LadyShia77]

What attracted you to this species?

I think it's the fact wolf spiders were originally one of the few spiders I truly found intimidating. Then I learned that people actually kept wolf spiders as pets. I saw their temperament and started getting curious about what wolf spiders were around my yard. I caught my first Tigrosa Annexa (a six legged male that I eventually lost) and then a Tigrosa Annexa female. I fell in love with them and later learned that Carolina wolf spiders were a thing and were supposed to be native to my area. I just got into really wanting one and, sadly, could never find one in my yard. Pretty much all wolf spiders I've seen are awesome spiders. Even the little pardosas that run around my yard. I just love spiders in general. I have several jumping spiders, including a male phidippus audax and two phidippus audax females and a tan jumper female that recently had babies. I also have some regius jumping spiders, a clarus jumping spider, several crab spiders, a cricket thief spider, and a few other jumpers and other spiders lol. I'm surprised my bf has allowed me to have such a collection lol. He hates spiders. I'm definitely surprised he let me have a Carolina considering how big they can be.

Looks female for sure. Legspan?

The listing said 1.5 inches, but not sure how accurate the listing was.