One day when I was removing the dried blossoms from the salvia, I felt something move slightly under my thumb. When I looked in the bundle of dried stalks, I saw a dry papery egg sac about three-fourths of an inch wide. As I looked closer, there was a large green spider nestled among the dried leaves. Since I am always very respectful of all of God's creatures, I carefully placed the little pile of spent blooms on top of the chrysanthemums. My thumb was itching and I kept imagining that the spider had bitten me, but there was no welt and I soon forgot about it.

During the day, I checked the spider several times and found her still guarding the egg sac among the chrysanthemums. I questioned my good judgment at leaving the egg sac there, but reasoned that nature itself would take care of the problem since there are no doubt many insects, as well as birds and lizards and toads that would eat small spiders. Several days later when I was again removing dried blooms from the salvia, this time very carefully and watchfully, I was surprised to see that mama spider had moved her sac to the top of the lantana. She had woven a small silken web to hold it in place and had extended threads out over some of the nearby leaves. Now I could get a better look at her. She had a green body about an inch long with a strange spider face and a long abdomen that had white hash marks on either side. Her legs were over an inch long, green, and had brown spikes along the lower side. She seemed to be watching me as she scratched one long leg against the other.

A few days later I happened to walk by and saw that a multitude of tiny spiders had emerged from the sac and were exploring their surroundings by spreading out over the web. A few days after that, I noticed that the babies had grown considerably and were clustered around the old sac. Their tiny abdomens were now larger than a pinhead and brown. A bee lay dead on one of the leaves and must have served as their lunch. I was impressed that mama had been such a successful hunter, and I now looked forward each day to seeing how the family was faring in that tiny little world of their own.

I had great difficulty identifying the spider in my spider book, but finally thought it looked somewhat like the lynx spiders. When I entered lynx spider in the "search" box of Explorer on my computer, immediately I was confronted with a Green Lynx Spider identical to the one living in my lantana. I also learned that their favorite meal was bees or wasps. They do not bind their prey as some spiders do but merely attack, kill, and leave the bodies nearby for future consumption. I also saw a picture of the bite the animal inflicts and was not sure I wanted to keep this one and all its descendants living in the flowerbed that I would have to clean out after the first frost. I was not sure what I should do with her.

One day I noticed that the mama had just caught a fresh bee. I moved in so close in my curiosity that I frightened her. She dropped her prey and ran to the other side of the stalk. I tried to retrieve the bee but it was lost among the leaves below. I invited my friend Marsha over to see her and to my delight, mama had already made another kill. We took pictures and looked closely, but this time she held her ground and was able to keep the bee for her babies.

I checked her several times a day after that and frequently found her clasping a fresh kill. Her abdomen was swelling noticeably and I was wondering if she was already getting ready to lay eggs again although winter was approaching. I had become too attached to her to squash her or to spray, which I rarely do anyway. So, I decided to relocate her. I felt a bit insecure doing this job alone, since I had to take great precautions transporting a poisonous creature. Again Marsha was the only person I could count on for this.

When Saturday came and my husband was playing golf, I decided to make that the day's project. Marsha and I drove around in search of wild flowers with bee populations and finally located an area that was near a bridge and creek that would probably not be developed for a while. There would not likely be people in the area because of the dense wildness. Back home, I put on gloves and carefully snipped the branch that contained mother, egg sac, web, and baby spiders. As I had hoped, they all stayed in their spots and I placed them in a large plastic storage box and placed the lid on. I had carefully inspected the fit of the lid to make sure that it was not air tight, but close enough fitting to contain the arachnids.

We drove to the spot we had selected, waded out into the tall goldenrods and carefully placed the little clipping among the branches of the flowers, which were teeming with bees and wasps. I was touched that the mother spider, rather than trying to get away, had gone to the egg sac surrounded by tiny spiders and placed her body protectively over them. Many humans could learn a lesson from the lower forms in the protection and care of their offspring.