Green Lynx Spider still guarding her eggs
Here is one more shot of the still-waiting-to-be-a-mama Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia, Oxyopidae) on a tall cactus plant in the garden. She made her egg sac on October 5 or 6 and I suspect it will be another couple of weeks until the spiderlings hatch. What a great spooky Halloween mask she has on her abdomen! And it's interesting that her abdomen has nicely filled in - see this photo showing her just after making her egg sac. She is now hard to reach at about eight feet high in this spiny Prickly Pear (Opuntia, Cactaceae) cactus plant. I got this photo by extending my tripod all the way up and standing on a box. Not very steady, but it worked. Yeah, the white balance seems off in this photo, but that's just the way it looked this morning before the sun got to it. We live on the north-facing slope of the mountains, and we mostly loose the sun behind the hills in winter. That's not so good for insects and spiders, but it's excellent for mushrooms! Arachtober 29. (San Marcos Pass, 29 October 2017)
Green Lynx Spider still guarding her eggs
Here is one more shot of the still-waiting-to-be-a-mama Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia, Oxyopidae) on a tall cactus plant in the garden. She made her egg sac on October 5 or 6 and I suspect it will be another couple of weeks until the spiderlings hatch. What a great spooky Halloween mask she has on her abdomen! And it's interesting that her abdomen has nicely filled in - see this photo showing her just after making her egg sac. She is now hard to reach at about eight feet high in this spiny Prickly Pear (Opuntia, Cactaceae) cactus plant. I got this photo by extending my tripod all the way up and standing on a box. Not very steady, but it worked. Yeah, the white balance seems off in this photo, but that's just the way it looked this morning before the sun got to it. We live on the north-facing slope of the mountains, and we mostly loose the sun behind the hills in winter. That's not so good for insects and spiders, but it's excellent for mushrooms! Arachtober 29. (San Marcos Pass, 29 October 2017)