How a mystery spider’s candyfloss-like egg sac in Singapore spun a worldwide web of connections

The mystery spider egg sac was spotted in western Singapore on Jan 4. PHOTO: NICKY BAY

Ang Qing

UPDATED Mar 17, 2025, 05:00 AM

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SINGAPORE - A tiny blob on a plant captured the attention of Singaporean freelance photographer Nicky Bay in January – and mystified him.

From a distance, the 2cm-long pouch looked like the usual structure that spiders weave to shield their young from larger predators. But the silken sac resembled candyfloss, the likes of which Mr Bay, an arachnid aficionado, had never seen before.

Mr Bay had been out for a night walk in western Singapore with some friends when one of them noticed the spider egg sac and alerted him to it.

“Most people will just look at it from afar and dismiss it as just a normal, white egg sac. But us being us, we examine everything,” said Mr Bay, 47. He and his group of friends are part o f a growing community of macro photography enthusiasts around the world who capture extreme close-ups of tiny creatures.