Once upon a time not too long ago a green lynx spider produced an egg sac out of wasp juice and spider DNA. Here are the spiderlings, hatched a few weeks ago. They are soon venturing away from the cluster of their siblings and shed exoskeletons, to perch on an abutilon flower in the sun. Green lynx mothers exhibit protective behaviors toward not only the egg sac but the hatched spiderlings. The spiderlings tend to run back to the sac if disturbed and form a tight clump of tiny spider bodies. This mother spider was not in evidence when these pictures were taken; possibly she was hunting nearby; sometimes they wander off and produce another egg sac; or possibly she was killed by a predator and the spiderlings have been left to their own tiny defenses.
2 comments:
that's a whole lotta babies.
very cool!
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