5 Nasty Little Creatures That Eat Their Parents

Just when you thought childbirth couldn’t get any worse
5 Nasty Little Creatures That Eat Their Parents

Common decency tells us to respect our elders, especially the ones that specifically birthed or adopted us. After all, were about to completely decimate their stores of both free time and currency, so the least we could do is not call them an old hag when they refuse to buy us enough Fortnite V-Bucks to be Goku online. 

It turns out, though, that even the most beleaguered Target parent staring into the middle distance has it better than some parents in the animal kingdom. Specifically among arachnids, who cannot seem to produce positive press for the life of them, theres repeated instances of matriphagy — as in, eating their mother. 

Now, could eating your mother be seen itself as a form of respect? Thats a debate well leave to some soon-banned subreddit, and merely document a few species that have made this less-than-pleasant survival choice.

Black Lace-Weaver Spiders

gailhampshire

When the young spiderlings of the black lace-weaver spider, or Amaurobius ferox, are born, theyre obviously hungry, as babies tend to be. At first, this hunger is served with a strategy thats definitely gross, but only borne from a mid-level nightmare — their mother feeds them “trophic eggs,” which are unfertilized eggs meant to serve as food. Definitely a little off-putting, but nothing we havent come to terms with every time we eat a bacon-egg-and-cheese. 

Its three to four days later that we enter the real uh-oh zone. If you didnt know what was about to happen, youd simply observe the mother jumping and drumming on the web. Given that you probably dont speak spider, you wouldnt know the meaning behind this message: Shes signaling to her new brood that shes ready to become their buffet. The darkest sort of dinner bell rung, the children swarm and eat the mother. By all accounts, this self-sacrifice does make the young much stronger, to which I say: I sure hope so!

Crab Spiders

Andre Karwath

Australian crab spiders known as Australomisidia ergandros have also come up with this interesting approach to parenting. Though there are some similarities to the black lace-weaver, there are also some key differences. For starters, these spiders are only able to lay one clutch of eggs, which does raise the stakes enough that you can understand why the mothers willing to make sure her kids make it by any means necessary. But more importantly, mama Australian crab spiders are incapable of getting trophic eggs out of their body. And so, their next of kin has no choice but to tear into their mothers-turned-spider-scotch-egg.

Desert Spiders

Joaquin Portela

Like some birds do, the mothers of a species of desert spider known as Stegodyphus lineatus regurgitate digested food for their babies to feed on. Should it stop there, it wouldnt be notably more disgusting than were used to in any nature show. Its when her stores of food run dry that things get nasty. As she starts to empty her reserves, she begins to liquefy the entirety of her innards, producing a backup snack out of her internal organs. After about two weeks, inner-dinner is ready. The spider-children suck the husk of their late mother dry, leaving only an exoskeleton where mommy used to be.

African Social Spiders

The Stegodyphus dumicola is better known as the “African social spider.” Not exactly a fitting name considering the following bit of highly anti-social behavior. In process, it's very similar to the previous entry, with the mothers producing a nutritious little form of spider formula made from their insides, leading to death. The social spider does add a fun little twist to the mix, however, as this duty falls even to immediate family members. That means sisters and cousins have a chance to end up as a jar of spider Gerber as well, a responsibility that makes babysitting seem like a real breeze.

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