By Mindy Weisberger, Senior
Writer | September 22, 2016 07:20am ET
For some species of spiders,
mating comes with a deadly risk — the possibility of being eaten by their much
larger female partner. But in two species of widow spiders — the venomous
spider group that includes black widows — males deploy an ingenious strategy to
avoid being cannibalized during sex, according to a new study.
Scientists recently discovered
that widow spider males Latrodectus hasselti and Latrodectus geometricus prefer
to mate with females that are not yet sexually mature but which still have
internal structures that are capable of storing sperm, which the males access
by piercing the female's exoskeleton.
This sexual sneak attack is a
win-win situation for the male. He literally plants the seeds to successfully
fertilize the female at a later date, and is able to scuttle away from the
encounter with his dignity — and his head — intact.
Sexual cannibalism is common in
widow spiders, but males mating with immature females to avoid being
cannibalized is behavior that was previously unheard of, the researchers wrote
in a new study.
Study co-author Maydianne C. B.
Andrade, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University
of Toronto, Scarborough, has studied widow spiders
for nearly two decades, but had never observed this behavior until recently.
She told Live Science in an email that it was first brought to her attention by
a member of her research team — M. Daniella Biaggio, the study's lead author.
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