What could it be...

[Amanda]

This fat little guy was found living under a bale of hay in Southern Illinois. The legspan is a bit larger than the diameter of a quarter. Any ideas?

 

[Amanda]

Well, this may be a strong contender.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/37151/bgimage

 

[Mr. Skakun]

Lycosidae - Pardosa amentata? Too dark photo - or too dark spider ;]

 

[Stylopidae]

looks like the one that I have living in my baby food container at home. Look for my thread called 'Found a little wolf spider'.

In the thread someone posted a link to the identification of lycosidae (sp?)

 

[Scorpendra]

my money's on geolycosa sp.

 

[Amanda]

How easy are they to keep and how big do they get? I have 7 fat and happy tarantulas already, so I don't think a true spider would be much of a stretch, would it?

 

[Mr. Skakun]

Amanda, if it's really Geolycosa sp. it's size would be ~8mm. Body lenght ofcourse

 

[Amanda]

This one's already about 3x that size. (Legspan a bit larger than the diameter of a quarter.)

 

[Stylopidae]

It wouldn't be much of a stretch. Keep them like a burrowing T. I have mine in with no substrate and a peice of rolling paper for a hide. A beer cap for water, and it's all set. Keep substrate in with it, though.