If you’re on my Patreon, you already knew about my little catastrophe: one of my Steatoda triangulosa had produced a beautiful fluffy egg sac, I’d rewarded her by feeding her a mealworm, and in the ensuing struggle, the eggs had been smashed. Mama Triangulate Combfoot had her vengeance, and sucked that mealworm dry, reducing it to an empty husk. But the eggs were demolished.
Well now she’s gone ahead and produced a brand new egg sac. Look at it, it’s beautiful.
These look very different than Parasteatoda egg sacs, which are finished off with a light brown leathery casing, but they’re both the same otherwise — a nice wooly blanket of spider silk suspends and cushions the eggs inside. Now begins the pregnancy watch, with hatching expected probably next week sometime.
Caviar.
Eggs over easy.
@ ^ Walter Solomon : Bit small and not much yolk! Plus fertile eggs with embryoes so .. no.
@1. John Morales : Be a bit chewy at a guess. Silky texture maybe but probly stick to your teeth! Pretty sure only fish provide that. haven’t heard of any cuisine globally that uses spider eggs though gather grown up arachnids esp tarantual family are on the menu and quite popular in some nations.
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What’s the scale here please? I imagine that photo isn’t life size and would be nice to have an idea how big this is egg sac is compared to a coin or pen or something? I use my glove with small plants and fungi FWIW.
PS. Do these Steatoda triangulosa or / & spiders in general eat the destroyed egg sac(k)s to recycle the silk / nutrients they lost in producing them?
Can infant spiders ingest living tissue? It would be a fun practical joke placing egg sacs in items of clothing at work and see what happens.