CLOSED: Help to Identify a crazy brown spider!

Hello,

This is my first post to Dave's Garden. I've been peering at this website for a while now, and finally joined in!

I am writing to ask for help with a spider, and I sadly have no photo for this inquiry. : ( I am writing from Northern NJ, and I saw a spider today the likes I have never seen. It was a medium brown color, with a very fat thick and rounded body, perhaps almost 1/2 an inch long,very thin legs, with tiny raised bumps all over it's body. I tried to take a closer look as I thought perhaps it was covered in many smaller spiders or something....but nope, it just looked like many raised bumps. I have searched online and can't find anything like it. Anyone have an idea? Thank you!

Was it in a web, or just crawling about?

Was it perhaps a female wolf spider with spiderlings on her back? Maybe the bumps you saw were, in fact, her young.

http://www.critterzone.com/animal-pictures-nature/stock-photos/wolf-spider-carrying-babies-spiderlings-AWIN072809-193C.jpg

Hi Again!
Thank you both for your speedy replies!

It was not in a web. It was sitting on a leaf in the middle of a pool. (I saved it from it's watery trap of course).

I also was trying to look if it's bumps were it's young, but I could not see that they were. They were smaller than the image you gave, and the spider itself was very thick and fat. Weirdest spider I've seen. I looked very very closely to see if the bumps were it's young, (and then freaked out a little as I imaged it leaping onto my face for a higher vantage point, and so I put it in the brush).

Thanks again! I really hope to figure this out. I keep looking for images to share but just can not find this thing!
-Zjaba

If it was very fat, it likely was an orb weaver. They cannot jump, and are harmless.

Hi flapdoodle,

Thanks for writing again....but sadly it is not an orb weaver. It was very thick and round, and had a "softer" looking body than the orb weaver. I am becoming obsessed with trying to find an image of this thing! If I do, I will certainly post it for you to see!

-Zjaba

Was it like any of these?

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=female+wolf+spider+with+babies+on+her+back&FORM=HDRSC2

Hello!

Great page of spidery imagery.

I just don't know.....this is the Wolf Spider that Ophdnk wrote about before too. The spiders on the back do indeed look like those bumps, so perhaps it was indeed a mamma with baby spiders. But the legs looked much thinner than the Wolf Spider. I will look and see if there are more variations on this spider in this area. Perhaps we are one step closer to solving the mystery.

Thanks everyone!

Hello Everyone,

After searching hundreds of images, I do think you are right and that it was a Wolf Spider with LOTS of babies on its back. Thank you again for your help!
-Zjaba