Home Page    Music    Writings    Links    Photo Gallery    About Me    Celebrity Haiku    Jackie Hall    Jesse Tomiano

I had a green lynx spider in my backyard a while ago.

From Florida.

And now I've got another one.  She was living up in my ponytail palm, but during the windstorm that we had back in January, she got knocked down from her nest (this is how I know she is a she...the males are smaller and obviously don't lay eggs).

I thought she was gone for good, but no such thing.  About three weeks ago, I was looking at my lavender tree - I know it sounds strange to refer to lavender as a tree, but it's taller than I am, so for my money it's a tree - and I somehow spied her on there.  For this I can thank having had one previously and having had lasik, I suppose.  At any rate, she has been hanging out in one spot on the front, killing honeybees for all she's worth.

They can also spit poison, the only spider known to do this, so it's not a good idea to get too close to them unless you've got on some kind of eyewear.

The way they hunt is pretty spectacular.  The greenlynx is an ambush predator, frequently tying a blossom into a good position and waiting for bees and other flying critters to show up, and then leaping down upon them.  This is one of the few spiders I've seen that doesn't really spin webs or use them for hunting, save for laying the trap.

Like all other spiders, she puts the silk glands to good use for breeding - and tonight I saw her weaving another egg sac.  Her first one is still up in my ponytail palm.  I haven't read anywhere that they are known for knocking out two litters, so this may be news to the world of etymology.  This one has had two litters of young, and the last one I had laid two as well - both of hers were destroyed by the massive rainfall that we got back in 2004.  Let's face it - the last one had pretty bad timing and even worse choices in location.  This one seems a lot savvier on that score.

They seem to live pretty much anyplace warm.  The pics on this page, as you'll note, are from Florida and Alabama.  They also, obviously, live in San Diego and go far down into Mexico.

I'm glad she's doing well.  The danger from the rain seems over and the weather here lately has just been great.  

The spiders have always seemed to bring me luck, and I'm hoping that this one does as well.

This one's from Alabama.

Site design and administration by Apocalypse Web Designs, NLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of kRAPcO Industries, NLC
Love it? Like it? Approve? Tell me! 
all content © 2011