Comments on: Southern Spiders #2: The Green Lynx

By: JT

JT — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:48:31 +0000

I was searching for info on egg sac color variation in this species and came across this post. We have many green lynx to observe here in So. California. The egg sac is typically tan colored, shaped like a rounded bowl with a lid and possessing numerous spiky projections. The sacs are lodged (more than attached) in the shrub-tops and always (in our experience) tended by the female. The female produces a messy tangle of web sometimes curling under a leaf or two. She will move the egg sac from time to time; I suspect this is often in response to temperature. One spider this year produced a distinctly yellow sac, hence the search for info. Love these spiders!

By: Matthew Sarver

Matthew Sarver — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:55:34 +0000

Sorry for the slow reply, but no, they wouldn’t be bad for your plants at all. They are predatory, so they might actually help by eating some of the insects that might be feeding on the plants.

By: bobert

bobert — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:21:55 +0000

i have a few of these spiders in my (medical) canabis plants over in my yard. are these spiders bad for plants?

By: Richard @ The Nature Blog

Richard @ The Nature Blog — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:22:17 +0000

Wow that sure it an amazing looking spider! I am a big spider fan but have never seen a spider like that – it looks almost alien-like with that fantastic green colouration.

By: Matthew Sarver

Matthew Sarver — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:13:48 +0000

Thanks James! Had I thought a little harder, I would have remembered that! I’ve always seen wolf spiders and fishing spiders carrying the egg sac. In fact, I once had the good fortune of capturing a female fishing spider with an egg sac (to rear in captivity for a college project), then having a mantisfly emerge from the sac! Amazing! Thanks for the correction, and thanks for reading.

By: James C. Trager

James C. Trager — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:40:43 +0000

Susan and Matthew:

A spider egg sac without the mother attached would not be that of a wolf spider. Wolf spiders carry the egg sac about attached to the mother’s spinerets, and then, when the spiderlings emerge, they ride around on the mother’s abdomen for a while. I’ve heard several people recount that their most frightening spider encounter was stepping on a large wolf spider to kill it, only to have dozens of tiny wolf spiders flee in every direction from their oozing mother’s corpse — Good stuff for an entomo-horror flick! Anyway, without further description of the egg sac’s shape and size, hard to be sure, but if the sac was flat and satiny looking, perhaps that of a gnaphosid running spider or relative.

By: Crafty Green poet

Crafty Green poet — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:14:07 +0000

what an astonishing spider!

By: Matthew Sarver

Matthew Sarver — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:21:09 +0000

Susan – I’ve never seen the egg sac of this species, but from my understanding it would typically be attached to a plant or small shrub. I expect if it was on the ground, it might be more likely to be a wolf spider, but that is just a guess! Thanks for reading!

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:57:54 +0000

found a yellow egg sac with small orange eggs inside on the back of a dead oak leaf on the ground. Possible lynx pier eggs?

By: Matthew Sarver

Matthew Sarver — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:13:41 +0000

Thanks – wish you were there to see it with me!