Poor
male dark fishing spiders. The very act of mating sends them into a
comatose state, following which they're eaten by the female. Losing your
virginity is a death sentence.
To copulate with a female, a
male dark fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus) coats his pedipalps (the
two "legs" closest to his face, left) in sperm and inserts one into the
female and inflates a bulb within. During this process
his legs curl up under him and he becomes immobile. Two hours later, he
dies - if the female hasn't already liquified and eaten him.
Though it sounds counter-productive, being eaten can actually increase a
male's chance of fathering offspring. In other spider species, it's
known that a sated female will produce healthier offspring and is less
likely to mate with another male.
These events happen when the
male gets to mate, but sometimes he won't even get that far. If a male
doesn't follow the foreplay rules, the larger female will eat him. If he
accidentally inflates one of his pedipalp bulbs, immobility and death
follow. Once inflated the bulb can't be deflated, and the researchers
believe it is this genital mutilation that results in the male's death
(rather than any act of the female, as noted in other species).
A separate experiment revealed that males have preference for virgin
females. If exposed to the silk of virgin and non-virgin females, the
male will spend more time looking for the virgin female. If mating's
going to cost them their life, they may as well try and make sure they
weren't mating with a female who'd already fertilized her eggs.
To read the paper: http://bit.ly/17CwA1C
Photo credit: Rob Swatski/Flickr/CC BY-NC 2.0.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/
http://phys.org/news/
Poor
male dark fishing spiders. The very act of mating sends them into a
comatose state, following which they're eaten by the female. Losing your
virginity is a death sentence.
To copulate with a female, a male dark fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus) coats his pedipalps (the two "legs" closest to his face, left) in sperm and inserts one into the female and inflates a bulb within. During this process his legs curl up under him and he becomes immobile. Two hours later, he dies - if the female hasn't already liquified and eaten him.
Though it sounds counter-productive, being eaten can actually increase a male's chance of fathering offspring. In other spider species, it's known that a sated female will produce healthier offspring and is less likely to mate with another male.
These events happen when the male gets to mate, but sometimes he won't even get that far. If a male doesn't follow the foreplay rules, the larger female will eat him. If he accidentally inflates one of his pedipalp bulbs, immobility and death follow. Once inflated the bulb can't be deflated, and the researchers believe it is this genital mutilation that results in the male's death (rather than any act of the female, as noted in other species).
A separate experiment revealed that males have preference for virgin females. If exposed to the silk of virgin and non-virgin females, the male will spend more time looking for the virgin female. If mating's going to cost them their life, they may as well try and make sure they weren't mating with a female who'd already fertilized her eggs.
To read the paper: http://bit.ly/17CwA1C
Photo credit: Rob Swatski/Flickr/CC BY-NC 2.0.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/
http://phys.org/news/
To copulate with a female, a male dark fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus) coats his pedipalps (the two "legs" closest to his face, left) in sperm and inserts one into the female and inflates a bulb within. During this process his legs curl up under him and he becomes immobile. Two hours later, he dies - if the female hasn't already liquified and eaten him.
Though it sounds counter-productive, being eaten can actually increase a male's chance of fathering offspring. In other spider species, it's known that a sated female will produce healthier offspring and is less likely to mate with another male.
These events happen when the male gets to mate, but sometimes he won't even get that far. If a male doesn't follow the foreplay rules, the larger female will eat him. If he accidentally inflates one of his pedipalp bulbs, immobility and death follow. Once inflated the bulb can't be deflated, and the researchers believe it is this genital mutilation that results in the male's death (rather than any act of the female, as noted in other species).
A separate experiment revealed that males have preference for virgin females. If exposed to the silk of virgin and non-virgin females, the male will spend more time looking for the virgin female. If mating's going to cost them their life, they may as well try and make sure they weren't mating with a female who'd already fertilized her eggs.
To read the paper: http://bit.ly/17CwA1C
Photo credit: Rob Swatski/Flickr/CC BY-NC 2.0.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/
http://phys.org/news/
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