Why Do Babies Eat Their Parents?

Matriphagy—offspring consuming their mothers—occurs across multiple species including spiders, earwigs, and pseudoscorpions, representing an evolutionarily successful reproductive strategy despite rarity.

Black lace weaver spiders execute matriphagy through elaborate mother-offspring communication involving web vibrations, drumming, and jumping behaviors coordinating consumption timing.

Crab spiders execute matriphagy through gradual hemolymph extraction from maternal leg joints, causing progressive immobilization and eventual death rather than rapid consumption.

Desert spiders initially feed offspring through regurgitated bodily fluids before spiderlings transition to consuming mothers alive when nutritional demands escalate.

Matriphagy provides measurable fitness advantages including increased body mass, accelerated molting, higher survival rates, enhanced hunting capability, and reduced sibling cannibalism among spider offspring.

Evolution prioritizes genetic lineage continuation over individual survival, enabling parental death strategies including matriphagy, semelparous reproduction, and dangerous childbirth when offspring success compensates.

Hump earwigs reproduce during cold temperatures specifically to reduce predation risk, employing matriphagy to compensate for low nutrient availability during winter periods.

Matriphagy species divide into obligate practitioners (always consuming mothers) versus facultative practitioners (consuming mothers conditionally based on environmental circumstances).

Funnel web spiders provide extended maternal care through mobile egg-carrying, engaging in matriphagy only when low-nutrient environments make maternal sacrifice beneficial.

Parental investment theory describes resource allocation dynamics where parents balance self-preservation against offspring provisioning while offspring compete for maximum individual resource shares.

Caecilian amphibians (worm-like burrowing creatures) practice skin feeding where offspring consume maternal skin which regenerates, creating non-lethal matriphagy variant.