there’s a new species of jumping spider…. and it feeds its babies milk.
“chen et al. describe an ant-mimicking jumping spider that secretes a nutritious milk-like substance on which its young offspring are entirely dependent. The spider also continues to care for the spiderlings as they mature and become independent.”
by popular request here’s a picture of the new jumping spider species that produces milk, toxeus magnus. its milk contains 2 milligrams of sugar per milliliter of liquid, 5.2 milligrams of fat and a whopping 124 milligrams of protein, and researchers suggest it may be made from unviable eggs.
Toxeus magnus isn’t actually a new species – it was named back in 1933 – but the milk-feeding discovery is new, and if anything that make this even more amazing. We’ve known about this spider for 85 years and only just noticed it was doing this.
It makes milk in the most spider way possible
