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A collective web of Agelena consociata in Uganda.. A social spider is a spider species whose individuals form relatively long-lasting aggregations.Whereas most spiders are solitary and even aggressive toward other members of their own species, some hundreds of species in several families show a tendency to live in groups, often referred to as colonies.
Females reach six inches in diagonal leg span on average while males can reach 5 inches. Males are sexually dimorphic, appearing to have much thinner legs as well losing most of their coloration, it can be hard to distinguish them from Psalmopoeus cambridgei mature males. Females can live up to 12 years while males only live to about 4 years.
Desert Spider, Stegodyphus lineatus, one of the best-described species that participates in matriphagy Matriphagy is the consumption of the mother by her offspring. [1] [2] The behavior generally takes place within the first few weeks of life and has been documented in some species of insects, nematode worms, pseudoscorpions, and other arachnids as well as in caecilian amphibians.
Tarantulas normally hunt by staying in their burrows and waiting for their prey to come to them, according to a Texas A&M field guide. Their prey includes crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, cicadas ...
Sacrificial mothers: Offspring of the species Stegodyphus lineatus eat their mother. Females of Segestria florentina sometimes die while guarding her eggs and the hatched spiders later eat her. Non-reproductive cannibalism: Some spiders, such as Pholcus phalangioides, will prey on their own kind when food is scarce. [18]
In captivity, female tarantulas can live as long as thirty years, and some can grow as large as a human hand. They may look terrifying, but some people keep them as pets.
Receptive females will allow a male to mate, usually during the rainy season, resulting in the making of an egg sac and the laying of 300 to 500 eggs several weeks later. The egg sac is incubated for about seven to eight weeks at 24 to 27 °C (75 to 81 °F), after which pale-colored young emerge and cluster together.
Luckily, spiders eat mostly insects -- especially the ones you may also find in your home. But as spiders get bigger, so do their prey, and larger arachnids feast on lizards, birds and small mammals.