A wolf spider's anatomy consists of two sections: an abdomen and cephalothorax, which is the head and thorax together. These two major sections are connected with a small waist, known as the pedicel. Like all spiders, the wolf spider has eight legs and two jaws, called chelicerae, with fangs at the end through which they inject venom.
Between the jaws and first pair of legs, spiders have pedipalps, which look like a shorter pair of legs. These aid the spiders in sensing objects, constructing webs, and feeding on prey. Males use their pedipalps to deliver sperm to the females. A male's pedipalps are sometimes a different color than the female's and they also tend to be larger.
Most spiders, including the wolf spider, have eight eyes, though some have six. The wolf spider's eyes are in a formation of three rows with four small eyes in the bottom row, then two large eyes in the second, and two smaller eyes in the third.
Like many spider species, female wolf spiders are larger than the males. Females measure approximately about 3/8″ to 1-3/8″ in body length, while the males are about ¼” to ¾” long. However, with the legs included, wolf spiders can measure as large as five inches. Needless to say, they can be frightening to those who happen upon them. Their legs are long and bristly with three claws at the end of each.
Wolf spiders have a hairy appearance and are usually brown, grayish, or black or have a combination of these colors in their markings. They have a stripe, or sometimes a few stripes, on the cephalothorax, that are usually lighter than the rest of the spider. However, sometimes the spiders are lighter in color, such as tan, with darker striping.
A female wolf spider can be seen carry an egg sac on the underside her abdomen and, later, with many spiderlings riding on her back.