Lynx spiders
Oxyopes spp
Lynx spiders,
Oxyopes spp. are active hunters usually seen near the tops of plants. They do not make a web but use their good eyesight to locate prey, then jump on it from a distance. Their legs bear numerous characteristic spines. Their abdomens are narrow and pointed and usually pale brown to green and striped. As in almost all spiders, the young disperse by 'ballooning' from tall plants where the silk is played out into the breeze until the pull lifts and carries them away. Most spiders arrive on cotton in this way in early summer and do not mature and reproduce until the crop is flowering. Lynx spiders are generalist predators like most spiders and have been observed eating small helicoverpa larvae and jassids and are known as important predators of Mirids (Cotton Flea hopper) in the United States.
