Study: Spiders get away to avoid cannibalism
Scientists have discovered a new way male spiders avoid being eaten after sex: catapulting away.
After mating, some species of female spiders kill and eat their partners. The catapulting spiders are showing a new will to live, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Current Biology on Monday.
The study oversaw 155 matings in which 152 male spiders used the catapulting behavior. The three male spiders that didn’t were “captured, killed and consumed by the females.”
“There are all kinds of great stories of strategies male spiders have come up with to escape being eaten by their mates,” Eileen Hebets, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor, told NBC News.
“Some males can induce acquiescence in their female partner – for example, knock her out – to escape,” Hebets told the outlet. “Others tie the females up with silk. Others come bearing gifts, like a silkwrapped prey item, to presumably occupy the female while they attempt to mate.”
According to the study, the male spiders rely on the inner hydraulic mechanism in their legs to quickly get away. But many of the male spiders return to the same females to try mating again.
“Once females showed aggression toward them, they dropped to the ground,” the study said.
Male spiders may be able to catapult multiple times, which increases their chances of paternity, according to the study.
The study concluded that male spiders evolved the catapulting behavior as a direct response to female cannibalism.