We caught Charlotte racing across our living room floor about 2 weeks. My oldest son (7 yrs old) was doing a book report for school on orbweavers. I caught Charlotte and we have been keeping her in a quart sized Mason jar, but today she created an egg sack. I have tried finding information on exactly what type of spider she is, but I have been unable to find her. I would also appreciate any information about gestation periods for egg sacks.
Here is another picture to help identify her size.
Your Charlotte is not an Orbweaver, she is one of the Wolf Spiders of the family Lycosidae. She is similar to this Carolina Wolf Spider (Lycosa carolinensis): http://davesgarden.com/bf/showimage/2274/
but I think yours is a different species.
Dear Kennedyh;
Thank you for the link, we appreciate the information. We did not think she was an orbweaver, but we had no idea what type she was.
Here is a picture of her egg sack from early this morning. We put dirt and pine needles in the jar and Charlotte has been picking up the debris and covering the egg sack with it. How she has constructed it has been amazing to watch.
This picture turned out a little better.
