CLOSED: Spider

I was in the living room waching TV late at night and I looked up and saw this HUGE spider sitting there. It's so big it dwarfed the large sized cricket I fed it.

I'm in Maryland. What kind is it?

This is one of the Wolf Spiders from the family Lycosidae. The females sometimes carry their brood of baby spiders on their back.

We have some comparable to small tarantulas around here! We've uncovered more than one female around here with her egg sac in tote. We leave them alone to hunt bad bugs. The female will go to great lengths to protect her egg sac, even as far as picking it up with her mandibles if it gets knocked off her back. We just uncovered one the other day, and boy was she unhappy!

http://bugguide.net/node/view/4618

Very similar to the wolf spider, but closer to your description, is the Huntsman or Housekeeping Spider (Heteropoda venatoria, family Sparassidae). It is quite common in Florida. A female giant crab spider may have a leg span of 4". They come out at night and feed on cockroaches, silverfish, etc. They are shy, and most commonly found inside. The wolf spiders are easily found outside at night. I take children on "spider hunts." Hold a flashlight by your head, close to an eye, then slowly scan through grasses and shrubs and tree bark. The tiny glistening eyes will shine back like little diamonds. When you walk up to them, they may scurry under a leaf to hide, but most often you can see the small wolf spider, 1.5-2". I've never seen one in a house or shed.
MN4

I was hyperbolizing about the size...they're just darned big spiders! We do, however, have tarantulas here, just not common in my area.

I never knew they could get that big. Thank goodness it didn't have the egg sack... I hope we don't have a bunch of babies in the house.

I'm going to put it outside, if anyone else saw it in the house it'd be attached the bottom of some one's slipper.

Here is one of our Australian Wolf Spiders, Lycosa godeffroyi. A friend who is a spider expert lent me this one for a photo opportunity. It is the biggest wolf I have seen and would have covered the palm of my hand (had I let it LOL).

It may look scary in person but from here it's a beauty! I think I see now what they call them wolf spiders. Because of the gray fuzz? Like wolves' fur?

Eeeek!!!!!

We found this one a few days ago, I am wondering if it's a wolf spider, anyone know?