A Mother’s Burden

This morning I fished a spider from the hedgehog’s water bowl. It was a mother wolf spider with her spiderlings on her back. They were very wet and covered with bubbles. While I was focusing the camera one of the babies dropped off and ran away.

The female garden wolf spider carries her egg sac with her. (See my blip of a few weeks ago). Then she continues to carry her spiderlings after they hatch. There would have been many more babies than seen here, but they may have already left because they do look larger than some I’ve seen.