Results of this study indicate that a wide variety of spiders are present in California cotton fields. Several of these are abundant during the cotton growing season and appear to feed extensively on such cotton pests as the lygus bug (seen being attacked by a crab spider in photo to left). Differences were apparent in the portions of the plant that different species inhabit and the area of the valley they occupy.

This investigation was supported in part by Agricultural Research Service Grant, Number USDA–12–14–100–8006 (33). Cotton growers Jay Dow and Everett H. Feaver, and farm advisors Hodge Black and O. D. McCutcheon assisted with this study. Joseph Hein assisted in sorting field collected material and in the studies of life cycles.