The mother allows herself to be eaten by her young
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The crab spider (Australomisidia ergandros) might just be one of the most selfless species on Earth. As mothers, these eight-legged arachnids not only protect their bundle of eggs while they develop into tiny spiderlings, but in the weeks after they hatch they become a food factory to help their young grow. Crab spiders lay sacks of unfertilised eggs for spiderlings to feast on, but a mother can only produce a certain number of sacks. When her young have eaten all the egg sacks, the mother will tap on the family web a few times and push herself into her brood, awakening the hunter behaviour of her spiderlings. They quickly swarm her body and begin devouring her. Over the course of weeks, she is eaten until there is little left behind.