• Mood: sad

Emily's babies are all dead.

There was some activity in Emily's egg sac the other day and I discovered Pteromalidae Parasitic Chalcid Wasps emerging from it. They lay their eggs in spider egg sacs, the larvae eat the baby spiders and then hatch from the egg sac and fly away to do more evil. If you look closely, you can also see what look like some sort of worms burrowing in or out -- not sure what they are, if they're related or not. And also, a mystery.

You'll notice in the upper right, that thing that looks like an alien skin? That's a spider moult. I don't think it was one of Emily's babies though, I think it was another spider that just happened to moult near the egg sac.

Happy to hear input from spider experts.

It's worse than a sad day at Fortress Hennepin. I was looking forward to Emily's babies. She was unaware the entire time, just sitting there in her web. No idea where George is. I've gotten used to him vanishing though.




Wasps ate Emily's babies.

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