Striped Lynx Spider

• Its eight eyes are set in a strongly raised hexagon that gives it almost all-round vision, uncommon among hunting spiders.
• The long spines on its legs form a cage that holds the prey at the moment of the pounce.
• The female fixes the egg sac to a plant and guards it until hatching, barely feeding at all.
• It is a lynx spider: it hunts by running and leaping over vegetation, without spinning a web, and its legs are covered in long, bristling spines that form a cage to hold its prey.
• Its eyes are arranged in a highly distinctive hexagon, which identifies it instantly within the family.
• Other species in the genus can spit venom at a distance in defence, a behaviour documented in North American lynx spiders.
• The female fastens her egg sac to the vegetation and guards it without leaving its side, even giving up feeding.
• It is a useful predator in Mediterranean crops, where it consumes pests of herbaceous plants.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (arachnid)

Habitat and environment

Dry grassland, scrub and Mediterranean crops

Sources consulted: Nentwig, Spiders of Europe; Fauna Ibérica; Whitcomb, trabajos sobre Oxyopidae