An amber sample discovered in China shows the great lengths a mother spider will go to protect its young.
A team of researchers at Capital Normal University in China found an adult spider with parts of an egg sac underneath her body and nearly 100 spiderlings, all of which have been encased in the amber for 99 million years.
The female is also position in a stance like that of today’s female spiders who are engaged in protecting their eggs from predators.
Researchers determined that this protective mother was a member of the now extinct Lagonomegopidae family, which can be distinguished by a large pair of eyes on the front corners of the head.
A team of researchers at Capital Normal University in China found an adult spider with parts of her egg sac and some hatchlings underneath her body, all of which have been encased in the amber for 99 million years.
The insects lived during the mid-Cretaceous, which spanned 145 million years to 66 million years ago.
Because part of an egg sac and some spiderlings were persevered in the amber, the researchers say this suggest ‘adult lagonomegopid females probably built and then guarded egg sacs in their retreats or nests, and the hatched spiderlings may have stayed together with their mother for some time,’ reads the study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
A total of four pieces of Burmese amber found in Myanmar tells a complete story of the spider family that lived 99 million years ago.
One of the pieces houses the adult spider and part of an egg sac.
A total of four pieces of Burmese amber found in Myanmar tells a complete story of the spider family that lived 99 million years ago. One of the pieces houses the adult spider and part of an egg sac
In another piece, the team counted 24 persevered spiderlings, most of which are deformed and broken that happened when they were preserved. And another was found with 26 baby spiders and another encased 34
Pictured is an artist’s illustration of the mother spider and her young before they were encased in amber
‘The large spider is covered with emulsion-liked impurities, the dorsal parts of cephalothorax and abdomen are somewhat broken, and some of the leg podomeres are missing. Its large size, peg teeth on the promargin of the chelicera, unmodified pedipalps, spineless legs and trichobothria on the leg tarsus indicate that it belongs to Lagonomegopidae, and is an adult female,’ according to the study.
Th egg sac is also broken inside the amber but is visibly located under the female spider.
Researchers also found dozens of prelarvae and their egg membranes wrapped in the silk of the egg sac.
In another piece, the team counted 24 persevered spiderlings, most of which are deformed and broken that happened when they were preserved.
And another was found with 26 baby spiders and another encased 34.
Because they are roughly the same size, the study notes that it is safe to assume they are siblings.
The fourth piece housed a collection of other insects that also became trapped 99 million years ago, including a large leg of an undefined arthropod in the chunk, a preserved cockroach and wasp
The fourth piece housed a collection of other insects that also became trapped 99 million years ago, including a large leg of an undefined arthropod in the chunk, a preserved cockroach and wasp.
The researchers used CT-scanning to spot tiny eyes and other features that revealed the identity of the spider as well as the tiny spiderlings in 3D detail.
This allowed the team to identified specific features of the hatchlings, such as two large eyes on the front of their head.
The hatchlings likely died soon after they emerged from their eggs, and some of the arthropod appendages preserved next to them might be their mothers’ legs, the researchers said.