A shout out to eric-the-red who threw in a question about spiders, thusly opening the door wide for what I believe will be my 32nd post, thereby bringing me one step closer to realizing my barfly dreams.
Whilst noodling about a thread title - something catchy - my line about being a bad spider mother leapt out at me and said, "I'll do it...I'll fetch you some repartee!" ... and that line was a reference to the one thing in particular I previously knew about spiders; the lady spiders pop out several hundred eggs at a go.
Imagine if the little 8-leg-geds all had to have names? How do I know they don't? Perhaps certain particularly nurturing kinds of arachnids would have adapted in such a way as to know their own little'uns each by name so as to call them all over one by each for a sip on some fly carcass. o_O... Ergo - I'd be a terrible spider mother, and the wayward would starve, being out of earshot and unresponsive to the call of, "Hey, you there!" ... or ... "Eh! Thingummy whatsit! Yer up!"
... but your question got me thinking about the ultimate sacrifice - providing sustenance by
being sustenance.
I queried the Questions Universe (
http://questionsuniverse.com/how-do-female-spiders-care-for-their-young-and-what-do-baby-spider-eat), and here's what I learned:
"A European spider, Theridion, provides a far more advanced form of parental care.
The female closely guards her egg sac, which hangs in a protective tent in the upper part of her web.
For several days, the newly-hatched spiderlings feed on a liquid that oozes from the mother’s mouth. They share the mother’s food, eating liquids that ooze from wounds that she makes in the tough outer shell of the prey.
Eventually, the young grow large enough to help their mother make captures by throwing strands of their own silk over the struggling insect.
When the mother ultimately dies, her offspring eat her body, her last contribution to the welfare of her babies."That's not so awful I guess. The kids don't pig mummy in til she's already dead. Seems reasonable enough. Circle of life, and all that ... It's great how the author was able to use the verb 'ooze' twice - in back to back sentences!
There's a metaphor in there somewhere (not the use of ooze - more the final contribution aspect of it all as well as the bit about helping mummy catch food) ... but I hesitate to ponder it too deeply just now as I have early lessons and have been known to get lost in such rabbit holes for hours and hours.
Cheers to everyone for your replies
Together we can make my dream come true!
A not-so-great-with-names spider mother CAN yet aspire to one day be a barfly, and you all come with name tags, so ... that's good.
Anything is possible ... in (Raoul's)China(Saloon).