When you buy through links on our land site , we may make an affiliate committal . Here ’s how it works .
Mysterious structure
While volunteer in the Peruvian Amazon , alumna student Troy Alexander chance on a unknown web formation underneath a tarp .
Circle and spires
The shaping , about 0.8 inch ( 2 centimeters ) across , had a foreign spire in the middle encircled by pale - fence like stake .
Slime mold?
Experts guessed it could have been a gunk mold , a social system made by moths , or a defense team made by spiders , but everyone was stamp .
Return to the scene
So several month later , a team of researchers returned to the site to study the structures . After putting them in a glass , they bump infant spider think up from the strange structure .
Spider eggs
The mystery was solved : The entanglement tug were used for wanderer eggs , from which tiny , less than 1 mm spiderlings egress .
Still unknown
But it ’s still not clean-cut what metal money of spider made the webs or what the picket - fencing circle is for .
Ant defense?
One possibility is that the fencing is a defense against ant invaders eating or damaging the eggs , or the spikes lure mites as tasty snacks for the hatchlings .
