Citation

Tripathi R, Jangid AK, Siliwal M, Dutta S. Acta Arachnologica 2020; 69(1): 17-21.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020)

DOI

10.2476/asjaa.69.17

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Here we report and describe matriphagy (maternal self-sacrifice) phenomenon in Stegodyphus pacificus Pocock 1900, observed in Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India. All 57 nests observed during the study exhibited matriphagy. Typically, a female laid a cluster of about 100 eggs and spiderlings hatched nearly 33 days after the egg-laying. Around 17 days after hatching, spiderlings started feeding on their mother. Spiderlings dispersed from the nest after the death of the mother, roughly 84 days since egg-laying. While matriphagy has been known in some spider species, this phenomenon has not been reported or described in S. pacificus. © 2020, Arachnological Society of Japan. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Eresidae; Maternal care; Mother suicide; Pacific social spider; Thar Dese