Common Lynx Spider - Oxyopes quadrifasciatus
FAMILY OXYOPIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about Common Lynx Spiders that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Leg to leg 20mm
- Lynx Spiders are long legs spiders. They are medium in size. Lynx spiders are common in Brisbane garden. They do not build web but hunt small insects on plants.
- Female Male Female with egg-sac
- Lynx Spiders have good vision although their eyes are relatively small. They have eight eyes, in the pattern four rows of two. The above pictures, left picture shows a female and right picture shows a male. The male has larger pedipalps, which are used for transferring sperm during mating.
- Lynx Spiders can be found on trees or grasses, usually on the top of the short plants. They are active in day time hunting small insects. They have slim body and long thin legs with spines. They are colourful with green-yellow, silver and orange-brown bands along bodies. They hunt in the ways like a cat, i.e., slowly approach the prey and suddenly jump to it. This is why the spiders have their name Lynx.
- 14/03/2001 27/03/2001
- Above pictures showing the Lynx Spider guarding her eggs. Two weeks later she was guarding her children. Parental care is common in spider world. Lynx Spiders do not build web nor retreat but make egg sac on leaves.
- Their eyes have the characteristic pattern of four rows of two.
- The line patterns on those Lynx Spiders we found were either black or orange-red, slightly different between individuals. Since they were found in the same place in our backyard, we believed they are the same species in differents colour forms.
- Lynx Spiders are predators of small flying insects, including flies and bees.
- Reference:
- 1. A Guide to Australian Spiders - Densey Clyne, Melbourne, Nelson 1969, p43.
- 2. Wildlife of Greater Brisbane - Queensland Museum 1995, p31.
- 3. Oxyopes quadrifasciatus (Orange Striped Lynx Spider) - Save Our Waterways Now.
