Remember that beautiful Green Lynx I photographed a couple days ago (you can just scroll down a bit to see the picture)? Well, as I went outside this afternoon to take a picture of this slightly-less-beautiful spider that was napping outside our window (UPDATE: This hairy spider is a Platycryptus undatus [a tan jumping spider] according to BugGuide.net)…
…I noticed the aforemention Green Lynx spider on the ceiling of our porch — and she was much skinnier than the last time I saw her! Notice the sticky-looking egg sac?
Incidentally, it wasn't difficult to confirm that this Green Lynx was exactly the same Green Lynx we saw the other day. Did you happen to notice that the first picture I took showed a spider with only seven legs? Count this mommy-spider's legs and you'll get only seven legs as well, so there's no doubt both pictures are of the same spider.
I'm sure there's not many of you who are all that interested in spiders. But my kids are, so they want me to chronicle the birth/hatching of these Green Lynx babies as much as possible. It should be gross disgusting entertaining interesting!
Spider babies…yeah! At least I'm not the only with this weird fascination. Eric wanted to spray along the edge of our house for spiders today, and also spray the one in the corner of our back door who is currently guarding 2 egg sacs. (This is in addition to the one in our bedroom window.) I wouldn't let him.
Tell the little Js I'll try to get some pictures of the babies once they are all born.
OK, I really hate spiders, but not as much as crickets. But anyway, as much as I hate spiders, what a very cool educational opportunity for you and the kids. It is really fascinating! And I am really glad they are out your window and not mine.
We had a pretty fascinating spider make it's home here. I'll have to put some pictures of it up on my site so you can see ours. I'd never seen anything like it! I'd never seen anything like yours either!! CREEPY!!
Jumping spiders were a pretty common occurrence around our house as I was growing up- and I never did like them much! They had a habit of crawling around on our ceilings and making you wonder if they were going to drop on you. ick.