I live in Southern Ohio and was trying to identify this exact spider I discovered while doing landscaping. The picture you have posted seems to be the same spider however its abdomen was about 5X the size. What we found interesting was the armored appearance as usually spiders are soft bodied, the shiny black thorax shield, with top mounted forward looking eyes suggests this spider is a hunter and the armor serving the purpose of protection for both digging and fighting. Is this spider out of place in S. Ohio, or is it simply rare or does it remain non-identified? It looks nearly identical to the folding door spider however the exoskeleton shielding on the legs and thorax left no room for any hair whatsoever...could be a variation of folding door?

I live in Southern Ohio and was trying to identify this exact spider I discovered while doing landscaping. The picture you have posted seems to be the same spider however its abdomen was about 5X the size. What we found interesting was the armored appearance as usually spiders are soft bodied, the shiny black thorax shield, with top mounted forward looking eyes suggests this spider is a hunter and the armor serving the purpose of protection for both digging and fighting. Is this spider out of place in S. Ohio, or is it simply rare or does it remain non-identified?

Moved from Spiders.

Reminds me of this
http://bugguide.net/node/view/21373

Just a guess though.

Big Spider!!