Australian Spiders Matriphagy in Australian Spiders Matriphagy occurs in the Australian spider Diaea ergandros. The mother spider lays a clutch of about 40 eggs, the young hatching inside a nest of eucalypt leaves. The female continues feeding during summer, often on insects much larger than herself, and allows the young to feed on her, they attach to the thinner parts of the cuticle at her leg joints. The female redevelops ovaries with nonviable oocytes, presumably as increased food for her offspring. While the spiderlings are feeding on the mother they don't resort to cannibalism. The body weight of the mother before the young begin to feed correlates to the length of time before they turn to cannibalism, resulting in more of the clutch surviving to the independent stage. Even if the mother survives the feeding she doesn't reproduce again. links Photo Gallery Nature Photos http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/Spidaus.html