Subject: Green Lynx Spider
Geographic location of the bug: Mount Washington, Los Angeles, California
Date: 07/14/2018
Time: 08:03 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Dear Bugman,
While tending to my plants, I searched for the small California Mantis that had been there several weeks, but couldn’t find it. I did notice what appeared to be the same Green Lynx Spider I saw earlier in the month had returned. It is really shy and as I moved in with the camera, it hid under the leaves. It is really difficult to find it when it is hiding. I observed it eating a small fly and I noticed a second Green Lynx nearby on another branch. It is so fascinating that the same predators are appearing again this year. I had several Green Lynx Spiders on my plants last summer.
How you want your letter signed: Constant Gardener
Dear Constant Gardener,
Green Lynx Spiders are frequently found on blossoms where they capture pollinating insects. Hopefully these predators will keep your plants free from marauding insects.
Since they’re feeding on insects that eat the woody plant, I imagine these are very mellow green lynx spiders. Still it’s gotta be bad news for the herbivores if the predators gets the munchies.
Interesting. There is much documentation of insects getting beneficial protection from ingesting toxic plants, like the Monarch caterpillar and butterfly benefitting from the foul taste produced by eating milkweed, and it is possible that the plant feeding insects on the woody plants are enjoying the psychotropic effects, but we don’t know if the mellow effects of the plant would be passed on to a predator. The predator might be getting a “contact high” by absorbing cannabinoids directly through the exoskeleton.