Amateur Entomologist Examines Spiderlings in Huntsman's Egg Sac

An amateur entomologist in Queensland got a surprise when she opened what she thought was an unfertilised egg sac belonging to one of her huntsman spiders.

Lisa Van Kula Donovan inadvertently revealed a cluster of tiny spiderlings in the egg sac. She posted this video of the sac to Instagram, giving the background story in her caption.

Van Kula Donovan wrote in the caption that the sac belonged to a huntsman spider that she believed was a juvenile, and unlikely to produce offspring. She wrote that she “decided to take the sac from her thinking she’s going to die sitting on it… Well, as you can see, it does have babies in it!! And they still have their green butts!”

Van Kula Donovan added that she returned the sac to the enclosure, and reassured her followers that “these cuties will be fine.” Sure enough, she posted a follow-up video around two weeks later, showing the spiderlings “starting to spread out” (see second clip in that post). Credit: wannabe_entomologist via Storyful