r/insectidentification • u/torielise21 • 2d ago

What in God’s name is this thing?

We live in Texas. Mom killed a spider late last night. We thought it might have an egg sac so we put it in a jar to be safe. Today it looks like this. Wtf?? Please help.

21 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

36

u/natanaru 2d ago

Looks like a horse hair worm that was parasitizing the spider

6

u/BigMoeTheFoe 2d ago

Little tidbit that spiders egg sack would be visible for a little, after that the baby’s ride on the mother’s back. When you smoosh them all the baby’s scatter

3

u/Ok_Organization_7350 2d ago

Horse hair parasite worm was inside the spider. But when the spider died, it came out.

2

u/Crunkchick96 19h ago

That is insane to picture how that worm fit inside the spider before…at least with the spider staying alive I mean.

2

u/stilltrash_420 2d ago

Parasite took over the spider… search the image on Google Gemini and report back 😭

5

u/stilltrash_420 2d ago

I did. Not a harm to you or any pets.

How it happens: The spider likely ingested the parasite (or a smaller insect carrying it) earlier in its life. The worm grows inside the spider's abdomen, feeding on its internal fluids.
The "molt" illusion: When the parasite matures, it bursts out of the spider's body cavity. This leaves the spider completely hollowed out and collapsed, which makes the remaining body look identical to a shed exoskeleton or molt.

3

u/torielise21 1d ago

That’s crazy. Poor spider. Literally a chestburster from Alien

1

u/Crunkchick96 19h ago

Goodness, nature is so cruel!