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Project Noah Nature School
A female Wolf Spider with her abdomen covered in her spiderlings. The babies cling tightly to their mother, all facing head downwards. They do not get onto the cephalothorax so as not to impede the sight, movement and hunting activities of their mother. In the last picture, a baby had fallen off and is visible in the foreground. They usually climb back onto their mother fairly quickly so as not to be left behind. From the first three pictures, you can see how the large pair of front facing eyes reflect light. Family Lycosidae.
After spending a day at the Mayan ruins of Calakmul, we headed back through the Reserve after dark. Every few minutes we would see the refection of tiny eyes on the road and began to stop to investigate. All were Wolf Spiders. We found males, females and finally this one with all her babies attached.
A young Ranger at the Reserve claimed that the babies eat their mother, however after some research I found that the young hatchlings do not eat their mother and will ride on her back until they are old enough to go off on their own. A female Wolf Spider can live for 2 years or longer. The majority of the genera carry their eggs in an egg sac attached at the back of their abdomen. Some genera (Arctosa, Trochosa and Alopecosa) keep their eggs under the ground in web-coated holes or tubes. The youngsters crawl on to the abdomen of the mother and stay there until they change their skin for the first time. The female spider is a creature with a variable temper. Notorious for her rapacious activities, she displays a solicitude for her eggs and young that can scarcely be met by any other spider. Her egg sac, attached to her spinnerets, is a precious thing she will defend with her life. Her instinct is very powerful but she also can be easily fooled. When her egg sac is changed for something artificial, like a piece of cork or a wad of paper or cotton, she also will defend the artificial sac with her life. After two or three weeks, her young develop to a point where they can leave the sac. The mother bites open the sac and within a few hours all the young have climbed onto her abdomen where they will stay until their first change of skin. During that time the mother will engage in her normal hunting activities with her young tightly attached to her body. When the young are brushed from her body they will crawl back very quickly. In the time the young are attached to the body of their mother they do not feed. Their bodies are supplied with enough food to live during this period. The spiderlings will however drink from dew drops. For the male of this species see: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/139....
Spotted on Feb 19, 2015
Submitted on Mar 15, 2015
6 Comments
Thanks Neil. It is amazing how the babies know to stay off the face.
Excellent spotting. She looks worse for ware, but understandable under the circumstances. Excellent, and detailed, notes too.
Thank you Sunnyjosef, :)
Lovely photos...
Thank you armadeus :)
Wow. I had no idea about any of that. Great shots Lauren. The babies are so little! Thank you for the information and thank you for sharing :)