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to Their Young
By Douglas Quenqua Nov. 6, 2018
Though the spiders aren’t using mammary glands to produce the fluid,
and hence are “lactating” in name only, the findings should prompt
scientists to reconsider what they know about nursing and how it
evolved, the researchers said.
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Jumping spiders are the single largest group of spiders in the world,
with more than 5,000 species and a presence on nearly every
continent. The tiny T. magnus, also known as the black ant mimicking
jumper, looks like an ant, walks like an ant and even waves its front
legs in the air like a pair of antennas (it jumps when threatened or
hunting). The species is found mostly in Southeast Asia.
The study came about after the lead author, Zhanqi Chen, also of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, noticed that young T. magnus seemed
slow to leave the breeding nest, suggesting the mothers were
providing some sort of extended child care. That hypothesis received a
boost when he and his colleagues observed newborns in the lab and
found that neither they, nor their mother, left the nest to find food for
the first 20 days.
Looking closer, they found that during the first week, the mother was
depositing droplets of fluid from her underside onto the nest that the
hatchlings would come and drink. After the first week, the offspring
would drink the fluid directly from the mother’s body.
“We think that it may reflect the high risk of juvenile spiders becoming
prey themselves if they have to hunt for their own food,” said Dr.
Corlett.
It’s also unclear how the T. magnus generates the fluid, which contains
2 milligrams of sugar per milliliter of liquid, 5.2 milligrams of fat and
a whopping 124 milligrams of protein. The researchers suspect it may
have evolved from trophic eggs — unviable eggs that some insects
produce to feed their young — because the fluid emerges from the
same opening that produces eggs.
When the researchers blocked the mother’s ability to produce the milk
by covering the opening with correction fluid (a.k.a White Out), all
the hatchlings died within 11 days, showing their complete
dependence on the substance.
If you made it this far, we’re guessing you like spiders and want more of
them