The Lynx Spider

Heyo Peoples! I am back with another blog post for you!

Today I'm going to tell you about the Lynx spider from the family Oxyopidae. Now this spider is quite an interesting specimen. It has been named after the Lynx which is quite a beautiful wild cat.

Spoiler: Which you can see here

Straight from wikipedia!

Now you'll notice something about most of the spiders I have spoken about on this blog. That is that all of them, when not in a web, display the same sort of tactics to capture prey. Camouflage and ambush. One might say it is becoming rather predictable. (Come to think about it most of my posts have been on spiders lately) Probably because they are the most fascinating to me. Each ambush method is slightly different between each non web weaving spider. The lynx spider is no exception. It has it's own rather scary ways to trap prey. Hairs. Not short fuzzy cute hairs. Nightmare spiny hairs of doom. If this spider were as big as me, it would be the one I would be most afraid of. Granted that if all spiders were the size of me they could probably all kill me anyway. "Why?" you ask? Because this spider utilises long sharp spiny hairs on its legs to get a better hold on prey and to easier subdue struggling prey. Imagine you are stuck in a cage that you need to get out of. Now imagine you are in a cage that had 30 cm spikes protruding from every bar. I think you get the picture.

This spider comes in a range of colours and some species are even social. That means they sometimes hunt together or can tolerate the presence of a large number of them in a small area. That means, for insects, that they are not at the mercy of only one moving camouflaged spiny cage of death but many of them at once. It's times like these where I am glad I am not a bug. The colour of the specimen I found for you is a brilliant mixture of yellow and orange which matches some of the flowers in my garden perfectly.

Aand Pictures time.







I really need to move on to something not deadly and a little more peaceful towards other insects. But I'll sort that out in my next post. Until then I'll see you later!