Our nature study find today...... a Green Lynx Spider on one of our Zinnia's. Our youngest noticed it. I love his bright green spring like color and his black speckled golden legs. I don't like that he's a fierce predator of butterflies, skippers and bumble bees. We love the butterflies! Keeping an eyeful watch to see what may happen.
Update on the spider on September 5, 2011:
We observed that the spider was still on the same Zinnia flower this morning. Patience has paid off and it has found its lunch..... We are not happy! It's a Skipper! We like our butterflies and skippers. Sigh..... such is the way of life though, when it comes to predators and prey. I did mention the Green Lynx is a fierce predator.
OCTOBER 9, 2011 update on the spider:
This is the same spider we saw in early September. On the SAME Zinnia if you can believe that! The flower has dried out and has changed colors. The green lynx spider has changed colors too. It has used camouflage to hide itself in the flower. No longer are its legs solely golden yellow, they now have streaks of burgundy in them as well. It's body is now a reddish burgundy color, no longer the spring green as before.
Truly AMAZING to watch this type of defense mechanism in a predator so small.
You have to look hard for the spider's body. It is a brownish light burgundy like the petals of the flower. The big tan ball in the center of the flower is its egg sac. The spider is staying very close by to protect the egg sac. Once again, a very interesting sight to see. We just can't believe that the flower has not totally shriveled up and lost all color. Nature around us is full of tiny stories in the most inconspicuous of places.....
We'll keep our eye on the spider. I don't think it will live past the first freeze of autumn. That won't occur for another few weeks.
OCTOBER 30th UPDATE:
First frost of the season..... no sign of the spider, nor the egg sac. Both have disappeared.
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