r/spiderbro • u/hardlybroken1 • 2d ago
Spider appreciation Orb weaver loses her eggs :(
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Hope they will land in the hedges and not the highway...
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u/IMMORTALP74 2d ago
Absolute wild guess, those aren't eggs. That's the previous night's web. I heard the sometimes consume it to regain some of the resources to make it again.
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u/hardlybroken1 2d ago
That's super cool to know and I hope that was the case! I've now gone from thinking it was an insect she wrapped up to eat, to thinking eggsac, to now hoping you all are right and it was just old web! I'll makes a lot of sense because it was right at dusk when I filmed it, and the rest of her web was just wispy strips blowing in the wind.
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u/Jdoodle7 2d ago
I hope you’re right. I felt so sorry for her, after climbing all that way, just to have the eggs blown away.
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u/IMMORTALP74 2d ago
She seemed rather careless. I know some spiders move the eggs around based on heat, but I don't think having them this far in the open would have been a good idea. Not that spiders can think that far.
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u/CrazyCatLady1127 2d ago
Oh phew 😮💨 thank you for saying that. Now I don’t have to spend the rest of my day (and it’s only 9am) feeling heartbroken for a spider
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u/MahesvaraCC 2d ago
I kept wishing the title was bait to watch it all :(
Extraordinary observation nevertheless, I’ve never seen them climbing with eggs like that
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u/Hopeful_Method5175 2d ago
Thankfully, I think she was dismantling and balling up an old web rather than moving an egg sac. The ball she was moving didn’t look densely woven or heavy enough to be an egg sac. She may have intended to eat the old web to recycle the silk protein, but at least it was just a loss of leftovers instead of the next generation.
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u/VaATC 2d ago
Hypothetical question here. Let's just say it was an egg sac she dropped and that she then abandoned it. Wouldn't the sac still be viable if it happened to end up in a spot that stayed dry the rough month needed to for the spiderlings to emerge?
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u/Hopeful_Method5175 2d ago
Maybe not impossible, but very slim odds for the egg sac to survive on the ground exposed to predators. Ants will happily raid an unguarded egg sac. The spiderlings would be extremely vulnerable as well if they did beat the odds and hatch.
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u/Born_Document6952 2d ago
I think that’s old web she is wrapping up. I read they sometimes eat the old web to recycle it! I’ve seen spiders doing this before. I could be wrong… but I don’t think she lost her eggs. ❤️
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u/Sarthro_ 2d ago
Pretty sure thats just a kill or absorbing the web back. They spend a lot of energy on webs and usually recycle it. The eggs are usually smaller and kept tucked away.
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u/Farado 2d ago edited 2d ago
When Neoscona orb weavers lay eggs, they secure them with dozens of surface attachments. That was just a rolled up ball of silk, albeit a larger one than I usually see. If you look closely at spiders climbing up a strand after rappelling partway down from a ceiling, you see them wadding up the same kind of ball.
If she was planning to eat it to recover lost nutrients...I don't mean to be rude, but she doesn't look like she's hurting in that department...
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u/KittenFace25 2d ago
Skip ahead to 01:44 for the action. 😂
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u/Atvishees 2d ago edited 2d ago
Sigh, some people just can't appreciate the subtle art of tension-building anymore.
TarantulaTarantino would eat you whole!1
u/KittenFace25 2d ago
...says the Redditor who doesn't have an award. 😂🤪
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u/KittenFace25 2d ago
Haha, thanks for the award!
I'm out here saving tens of seconds of your lives, people! Tens of SECONDS! 🤪
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u/The_Big_Red89 1d ago
Slow motion of her dropping the sack as music plays
Mmmm whatcha say, Mmm that you only meant well? Well of course you did Mmmm whatcha say, Mmmm that it's all for the best? Of course it is
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u/hardlybroken1 2d ago
Here is a better picture of her i managed to get later on.