Abstract
Here we report and describe matriphagy (maternal self-sacrifice) phenomenon in Stegodyphus pacificus Pocock 1900, observed in Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India. All 57 nests observed during the study exhibited matriphagy. Typically, a female laid a cluster of about 100 eggs and spiderlings hatched nearly 33 days after the egg-laying. Around 17 days after hatching, spiderlings started feeding on their mother. Spiderlings dispersed from the nest after the death of the mother, roughly 84 days since egg-laying. While matriphagy has been known in some spider species, this phenomenon has not been reported or described in S. pacificus.
