A Spider that looks like an Ant suckles its young

/in /by

Strange things in the world of insects often crop up but this one seemed a little stranger than most. First of all there is a spider that looks like an ant, supposedly to avoid a certain spider wasp that likes to paralyse spiders in order to lay their eggs on the spider’s body, which then acts as a living pantry for the wasps’ larvae. Next, as most of us presume, female mammals produce milk to suckle their young and that is truly the definition of a mammal. But, here are the exceptions to that rule. Pigeons produce milk like ooze in their throats, which they vomit up to feed their squabers. And also this ant looking spider, the Toxeus magnus, have offspring that hang around the nest for several months (watching Netflix?) living off of fluid (rich in nutrients and proteins) deposited from their mother’s epigastric furrow (the canal through which she lays her eggs). After about a week she suckles the spiderlings directly. The babies relied on it completely for over 3 weeks at which point they started leaving the nest to hunt on their own. The spiderlings continue to return to their mother nest until they reach maturity. It is believed that the mother continued to contribute to their well-being and survival until she changed the locks and no longer tolerated them coming back.

https://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/a-spider-that-lo…uckles-its-young/

gogreenpestcontrol.ca Ladner Tsawwassen Delta B.C., Randy L. Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

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