THE HUNTING SPIDERS 213 



bright green, and there may be a relationship between color and 

 habitat, but so far lynx has not been identified as a confirmed resi- 

 dent of any particular species of plant. However, in California, a 

 favorite site for the spiders is the dull green foliage of the wild 

 buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), and the egg sacs are fre- 

 quently found tied to the yellowish flowers of this woody shrub. 

 Many of these western lynxes are yellow or even brown in color, 

 and have the whole dorsum blotched with large red markings that 

 often form a complete band. Some of the Old World Peucetiae 

 are reported to live almost exclusively on a single plant. One 

 variety is said to frequent the fresh green tufts and to be bright 

 green in color; whereas others that habitually seek the dried areas 

 of the plants are yellow and strongly marked with a pattern of 

 pinkish spots. 



The straw-colored egg sac of the green lynx (Plate XXVII) 

 will be found securely lashed to the outer twigs of her plant home, 

 and over it the patient mother hangs, head-downward, hugging the 

 bag with her long legs. The sac is nearly as large as the spider her- 

 self, and far more bulky a rounded object whose thick outer cover- 

 ing is embellished by many small, pointed projections. From the egg 

 sac extends a maze of lines to near-by leaves, investing the whole 

 branch in a silken web, where the young can remain until they are 

 ready to fend for themselves. The nest of the green lynx is often 

 similar to that of the fisher spiders, and her maternal solicitude for 

 the tufted purse and the young that break out of it is not less strong 

 than in the makers of the nursery web. 



The remaining lynx spiders of America are far inferior in size 

 to the green Peucetiae, but they are more numerous in species and 

 more diversified in color and pattern. Common and representative 

 is the striped lynx, Oxyopes salticus, which is at home in both the 

 temperate and tropical zones of North and South America, and is 

 well known in many of our northern states. This pretty little spider 

 is about one third of an inch long. The female has a pale yellow 

 cephalothorax clothed with white scales and varied by four longi- 

 tudinal bands of dark scales. Her abdomen is mostly white, and is 

 marked above by a dark basal dash and below by a dark median 

 band. Her pale legs have a narrow black line beneath the femora. 

 The male is slightly smaller, has balck palpi, and a black abdomen, 

 which often possesses an iridescent sheen. 



Another species from this group is the gray lynx, Oxyopes 

 scalaris, a brownish spider clothed uniformly with gray hairs. This 



