Fear of spiders can develop before birth

Scientists figure humans can be born with a fear of spiders & snakes, healthy phobias that up the odds of survival in the wild. It's not identified how such an inborn fear might develop, however. Now researchers have confirmed that unborn crickets can gain a fear of spiders based on their mother's disturbing experiences.

Scientists plant pregnant crickets into terrariums containing a wolf spider. The spiders' fangs were covered by wax so the spiders could stalk but not kill the pregnant crickets. After the crickets laid their eggs, the researchers compared the performance of the offspring with offspring whose mothers hadn't been out to spiders. The differences were dramatic, the scientists said.

The results of the cricket test advice that "the transfer of information from mother to offspring regarding predation risk, in the absence of any parental care, might be more common than one might think," told Jonathan Storm of the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg.

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