Green Lynx

The green lynx is a hunting spider that runs over low shrubs and herbs with great agility, leaping from place to place with great precision. Their relatively keen eyesight is comparable to that of the wolf and fishing spiders. They often pause and assume a characteristic prey-catching posture to await their victims. Although they trail a web-line even when jumping, they do not make use of webs to capture their prey.

They are of interest in agricultural pest management due to their hunting of insects that cause crop damage, and they are a welcome addition to our garden.














This is a green lynx that lived in our tomato plants last summer.

The life cycle of the green lynx is short, about one year. It begins with the female constructing her egg sac 21 to 28 days after mating, which occurs in July and August. The egg sac is light green when first constructed but becomes straw colored with age. After an egg sac is constructed, the female guards it continuously and vigorously. Usually, she hangs upside down from the sac and will rush at anything that threatens it. Each egg sac contains an average of 200 eggs. Emergence from the egg sac occurs within 10 to 13 days after the eggs have hatched. The female spider helps the young to emerge by tearing open the egg sac, but in an emergency green lynx spiderlings can make their own exit holes from the egg sac. Spiderlings pass through eight instars (a stage of larval development between molting their exoskeleton) before reaching sexual maturity, the total time from egg sac emergence to maturity, can be up to 300 days. Green lynx spiderlings overwinter as early instar spiderlings.




















This is a spiderling that is currently living in our herb garden along with many other spiderlings. It still has a few more instars to go before it reaches maturity.


References:

University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/beneficial/green_lynx_spider.htm