It’s almost Halloween, so I thought I’d tell you about my encounters with spiders over the last several weeks. I have a few stories to tell, so check back this week for more spider blogs.
Over the summer, there was a green lynx spider (Peucetia viridans) hanging out on the lantana plants in our yard.
About a month later, we noticed she was protecting an egg sac.
It takes about a month for the spiders to come out of the egg sac. The mother spider stays on the sac the entire time, protecting her young. She does not let go of the sac, and she does not eat.
The location of the spider and the egg sac kept changing. This was 12 days after the picture above, slightly lower on the plant.
The mother spider ripped open the egg sac when the babies were ready. Green lynx spiders are ambush spiders, they do not catch their prey in a web. However, the mother spins a loose web for the babies as a protective layer around them. The babies stay in the nest for another two weeks before they are ready to go out on their own. The mother stays to protect them.
There were plenty of predators interested in the new babies. We watched a Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) slowly climb up the plant toward the nest. The mother spider was ready to attack. We couldn’t stay to watch what ultimately happened. When we returned several hours later, the mantis was gone, and the mother and babies were still there.
The very next day, a green anole (Anolis carolinensis) was stalking the nest. The mother spider was on the top of the plant, while the anole was on the lower leaves. Again, the mother and babies survived the threat.
After another week, the babies have mostly left the nest. The mother hasn’t been seen for two days. She has spent over a month guarding the next generation. This is the end of her life. The babies have scattered to the leaf litter to search for food and to hide for the winter.
What an incredible thing to witness right in our front yard! Stay curious!