Watch Baby Spiders Eat Their Mothers Alive - National Geographic

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Once the eggs hatch, both mother and virgin females begin producing a nourishing fluid, which they feed to the offspring by mouth. (See National Geographic's pictures of animal mothers and babies.)

“This is a very intense process. In the end, the female will basically start to liquefy, and will use up almost all of her resources," says study co-author Anja Junghanns, an evolutionary biologist at Germany's University of Greifswald.

"When she is almost depleted, the offspring will crawl onto her and start eating her.”

spidersspidersspiderspiderSpiderlings eat a female spider alive in a process called matriphagy, or mother-eating. Photograph by Anja Junghanns

Matriphagy, or mother-eating, is exceedingly rare in nature, but Jo-Anne Sewlal, a fellow of the Zoological Society of London, says that the behavior has been documented in some species of insects, nematode worms, and other arachnids. (Read more about cannibalism in other animals.)

"While it may seem unthinkable for a child to cannibalize its mother," Sewlal says, "it's important to understand matriphagy has evolved over many generations to be the most effective means of ensuring the survival of the species."

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