WHEN YOU
LOOK
Western Bluebird
The Ground Crab Spider:
A Devoted Mother
When you look at this Ground Crab Spider, you see motherhood.
When you look at Thomisidae xysticus, better known as the Ground Crab Spider, you see motherhood. This may come as a surprise for you - I know that many, like myself, have gone most of their lives seeing spiders as nothing more than a household pest, or worse, something to be feared. When faced with a spider in daily life, most will kill it without a second thought. But there’s more to these small, eight-legged creatures than first meets the eye. Spider mothers, including the Ground Crab Spiders, are extremely devoted mothers, and will protect their young any way they can, even if at their own detriment.
In Comparison with the Wolf Spider
The Ground Crab Spider’s dedication to her young is not necessarily unique, and is shared by many of her arachnid relatives. You may have seen the wolf spider, who protects her young by carrying her egg sac on her back wherever she goes. This way, the wolf spider can keep her mobility and still be able to hunt for food. Like the Ground Crab Spider, wolf spiders don’t spin webs, but instead leap out at and capture their prey. However, unlike the wolf spider, the Ground Crab Spider doesn’t keep her mobility when she has an egg sac to protect, often making hunting a difficult task. And yet, the Ground Crab Spider will always prioritize keeping her offspring safe, staying with her egg sac even if it results in her own starvation.
Spiders as Mothers in Media
Spiders have been used as mother figures in film and literature for decades, with a classic example of this being Charlotte from the 1952 children’s book Charlotte’s Web. Charlotte acts as an adoptive mother towards the protagonist, a pig named Wilbur, and protects him any way she can. Charlotte’s character exemplifies the lengths which spider mothers will go to defend their children and keep them out of harm’s way. Similarly, the 2005 film Corpse Bride features a maternal spider character, a black widow that comforts the protagonist in her times of need, offering guidance and someone to rely on. This characterization of the spider in Corpse Bride shows some acknowledgement to the natural maternal features that spiders hold, even going so far as to project our own social expectations of human mothers onto a spider to emphasize her role in the story. The only opposition to these motherhood qualities found in arachnid characters seen in recent years has been the Other Mother from the 2009 film Coraline, whose treatment of the protagonist shifts from that of caring for a child to the capturing of prey. This shift would never happen in real spider biology, as spider mothers would sooner starve than eat their young, and have been known to offer themselves as a food source to their offspring when nutrition is scarce.
Charlotte's Web
Corpse Bride
Click on the Corpse Bride or Coraline Movie Photos to see example scenes!
Coraline
The Ground Crab Spider (Thomisidae xysticus)
The Ground Crab Spider is a devoted mother. Like the characterizations of the protective spider mothers we’ve seen in popular media, she defends her young against anything that could hurt them, staying with her egg sac after hiding it among the plant leaves in the fall months. She keeps her long front arms up, ready to fight to defend her children, and will stay with them until she dies.
​
While many may continue to see the spider as nothing more than a pest, I know that behind her alien exterior, there is a mother who just wants the best chance for her children.