Some spider species eat siblings, especially when food is scarce
David Villa/Sciencemage CBI CNRS
A type of spider avoids cannibalism while their siblings are alive, but it appears they are not worried about eating their siblings as soon as they die. This suggests that some spiders will become tolerant of each other by learning to recognize chemical or mechanical “life signals.” This may be an important part of understanding the evolution of rare social spiders.
Raphael Janson At the University of Toulouse…
Source: www.newscientist.com