RIP Earl (carolina wolf spider)

[LHP]

October before last an arachnophobe friend of mine brought me a spider and left it on my porch because "you know...you like that kind of crap." It was a HUGE carolina wolf spider. He was terrified of it and started to kill it, but at the same time he was fascinated and wanted me to keep it for him so he could visit it. He named her "Earl."

My friend did come to visit Earl- quite often. He brought his friends to visit Earl. I live in a small town and have had people I barely know approach me in the grocery store and ask me how Earl was doing. She ended up being a great spider ambassador. Earl died this summer and she is sorely missed. Here are some pics...
The first one is Earl in the jar she was left in at my door- just for size reference.

 

[Stefan2209]

Sorry to hear about your loss!

I´m not too deep into wolfies, cause most of the species available in europe are just too small to suit my taste.

Well, that´s a different matter with that carolina freaks, i really wish they´d be available over here. Great spiders! (And by the way, great pics of a great spider, too!)

 

[Bungholio]

Sad to here about that.

The size is indeed great! Very big monster.

 

[Randolph XX()]

too bad i live in Canada, otherwise, i have an adult male fro Earl!

 

[Peter_Parker]

How much did earl grow while you had her? I have one that looks JUST like that one, and I never really was sure what she was (we thought carolinas couldn't make it in michigan ).

 

[hortus]

OMG that third picture is GOLD i wish i had a macro lens to get some shots like that

 

[LHP]

Thanks everyone!

Earl was mature when I got her- I had hoped for an egg sac but sadly she never made one.

Here is a bad picture of what I did with Earl after she died. I wanted to neatly clean out the abdomen, but I guess I waited too long (wanted to make sure she was really dead) and the abdomen popped as soon as I touched it, so it ended up more messy looking than I would haved liked.

Lindsey