Wolf Spider Carries Hundreds Of Babies On Its Back

This gets a massive, gigantic, unequivocal no from us. A video has emerged of a woman holding a huge wolf spider in her hands while it carried hundreds of its own baby spiders. Which were all crawling on its back. Take a look:

Lisa Van Kula Donovan took a video of her holding the giant arachnid in the palm of her hand. At first glance it just looks like that's all it is - a giant spider. Which is creepy enough. But pay close enough attention as she films it and you see that its bulbous back is actually made up of hundreds of its offspring.

Wolf spiders are unique in this sense, as no other spiders do this. And thanks fuck for that. But the egg sacs are attached to the spinnerets at the end of the abdomen, which must be held in a raised position to keep the sac from dragging on the ground. This allows the female wolf spider to not only carry its unborn babies around but ensure that it can still hunt.

Then, when all of its babies have hatched - which makes us shudder to just thinkabout - the mother spider carries her babies around on her back for a few days.

As can be seen in the video, the spiders are not just dedicated mothers but also harmless. Unless they're provoked. But judging by the way Lisa was able to hold the mother in her hands, it doesn't seem like all that much provokes them. Not that we'd even attempt to do any such thing.

Wolf spiders get their name because they stalk and hunt their prey just like wolves do - literally running after what they want to eat and pouncing on top of it. Which makes us very glad they're a lot smaller than us.

But arachnophobia aside, there's actually something incredibly sweet about seeing this, because it makes you realise just how strong that family bond is, whether you're a human or a spider. That said, we're still totally creeped , but we'll get over it soon enough. Hopefully.