Rare footage captures the moment a female tarantula releases an egg sac containing more than 1,700 ‘show me’ offspring.
A new video clip shows the amazing process that begins with the mother’s secretion of eggs inside a silk sac that incubates the spiders.
Tarantula releases an oozing egg sac that contains more than 1,700 spiderlings in rare video https://t.co/YWNDiBTcMy
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) March 14, 2023
Then the female begins to work covering the eggs in layers of webbing until she forms a ball of net, which she guards fiercely for the next two months.
The young spiders will then emerge from the egg sac, producing silky threads that are picked up and transported by the wind to colonize habitats far from their birthplace.
The video shows the adult tarantula covering the area with silk in preparation for the release of the egg sac.
Once the bag is in place, the female wraps it in a webbing to protect it from predators – these eggs are a tasty meal for centipedes, scorpions and other insects.
Some flies and wasps also lay eggs in spider egg sacs, so the larvae can feed on the eggs once they hatch.
Tarantulas are hairy spiders that are commonly found in the United States, Mexico, and tropical America.
The largest South American tarantula belongs to the genus Theraphosa.
These creatures are about three inches long and have even been known to catch small birds as prey.
The female tarantula is distinguished by having a fuller body than the male and it is covered with light brown or brown hair, and the male is thinner, and black hair covers most of the body and reddish hair in the abdomen.