A man in Australia shared footage of an apparent “glittery” spider – but it turned out to be a mother and hundreds of her babies.
TikTok user Bamshki shared the video of the spider appearing to sparkle. It later becomes apparent that the insect is not sparkling but rather hosting her offspring on her back. They are later seen jumping from her back. The moment has garnered more than 150,000 views across the world.
He is heard saying, "Oh wow. That is dope. You should see what I’m seeing, it’s glittery. Watch, watch, watch, look at this. It sparkles."
He zooms in on the spider, and it does appear as if she is sparkling. However, Bamshki becomes audibly shocked to discover what is really going on.
"It’s eyes. Those sparkles on its butt weren’t sparkles, it was little tiny eyeballs. Oh my f****** god they’re literally all around its body," he exclaims to a woman in the background.
The spider in the video is believed to be a wolf spider. They are known to be extremely maternal creatures and carry their young on their backs and have eight eyes, which would explain the glitter-like effect. Unlike other spiders, wolf spiders do not spin webs.
“One of the most remarkable things about wolf spiders is they are one of the few species of spider that show maternal behaviour, said Gillian Burke, a nature expert on Nature's Strangest Mysteries: Solved on Animal Planet.
She went on to explain that they “carry their eggs in a special silk sacks, and when those eggs hatch out a spiderling, actually climb onto and completely coat the female’s abdomen, and they’ll ride her back like that until they’re old enough to fend for themselves.”
She and other nature experts were discussing a similar video in 2019, which was taken from in a house in Williamsburg in Virginia.
