Green Lynx Spider

The green lynx spider, Peucetia viridans, is a bright green spider found across the southern United States, California, Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and Venezuela, typically living directly on green vegetation where its coloring provides camouflage. Females grow to about 22 millimeters in body length while the more slender males reach about 12 millimeters, and both sport a reddish patch between the eyes and roughly six forward-pointing chevron markings down the abdomen, along with long black spines on green to yellow legs. Rather than building a web, it hunts actively during the day, pouncing on prey in a cat-like manner that gives the lynx spider family its name.