Nov
05
Meet the male Australian redback spider. He’s the little guy on the left:
He’d say hello, but he can’t, ’cause he’s dead.
Don’t feel too bad: He was never going to make it out of here alive. Redback spiders are members of the black widow family, which means once they’re done getting frisky, the lady spiders get eating. Here’s how it works. Male redbacks mount the females to fertilize one of her two sperm storage organs (this is apparently the correct scientific term). Then, the agile arachnid somersaults — somersaults! — to line up his abdomen with her pointy fangs. According to LiveScience.com, “That’s perfect positioning for the female to begin devouring the male’s body.” After 15 or 20 minutes, he flips back, “partially digested,” and takes care of the other sperm storage organ. After that, she eats him up.
This particular fellow, however, didn’t get past the first somersault. Why? His dancing skills left something to be desired.
That’s right. It turns out that before the mating-slash-devouring can begin, the male redneck must bust out his dance moves for 100 minutes — 100 minutes! — while plucking at the female’s web and sending sexy vibrations along its threads. Only after the proper time has elapsed will the female accept her suitor. And if he skimps on the foreplay, dancing for only, say, an hour and a half? She eats him up.
It gets worse. After the first round of copulation and after the 15 to 20 minutes of partial digestion, the male spider must briefly dance again in order to reach the second sperm storage organ and secure his shot at paternity. But if his pop-and-lock fails to impress? You guessed it: She eats him up. And that’s what happened to our friend here.
Now, new research has uncovered a twist in this ritual — female spiders can’t seem to distinguish between sources of courtship. That opens the door for some enterprising male to let another redback do the dancing, getting her all hot and bothered, before he sneaks in for the glory. MEN.
The upside: Our lonely dancer avoids getting eaten up. The downside: He feels like a damned fool.
— Danielle Groen
Photo credit: Ken Jones
