Oxyopes elegans L. Koch, 1878 Elegant Lynx Spider

A common spider in vegetated habitats, especially long grass. Its range is mostly coastal to inland Queensland and New South Wales. It hunts on foliage, pouncing on insects and other arthropods, including spiders. This species has black lines along the length of the insides of its front legs unlike the similarly sized O. variabilis whose legs are plain and closely furry underneath. Mascord describes an oval, white, flattish egg sac attached to the underneath of a leaf blade of grass or on the underside of any green leaf, containing 35-45 pale cream non-glutinous eggs, each about .6mm in diameter. (Mascord 1970.) Judy Grimshaw did some work on this group in 1989 and was able to distinguish this species from other similar ones by the lines running down the sides of the head being equal width to the ones running down the centre, as well as by abdominal pattern, palp and epigyne. The very similar O. gracilipes, often further from the coast but overlapping in range, has much wider lines along the sides of the head. ♀ 7mm ♂ 5mm