Did you know that spiders eat each other for fun? Interestingly enough, this concept is prevalent amongst spiders. In this article, it says that women spiders “consume the mail spider either before or after copulation” (Livescience.com). Therefore, if the male is lucky, and perhaps “on his game”, he will have the privilege of mating before he is instantly a post coitus entrée. The real question is, “why do female spiders consume their mating partners before, during, or after sex?”
There are actually a few reasons why women spiders engage in this pursuit (eating males). By consuming male spiders, the female spiders “provide a nutritional advantage, or rid the population of an undesirable father.”
What I found to be excessively comical, however, is that female spiders actually have preferences towards whom they want to mate with. How in the world could this be the case when essentially every male spider has similar characteristics and appearances as the male spider next to them? Female spiders are definitely picky towards whom they would like to mate with. And, unfortunately, if the female doesn’t like the appearance of the male spider at a first glance, dinner is served.
Aside from those two observations, scientists have also concluded in this article that “perhaps the spider is just hungry, and she might have impulse control”.
Female spiders can detect male spiders in poor condition versus those in optimal condition, and, obviously no woman wants a weak man. Well, interestingly enough, women spiders share the same thought process. They are naturally inclined to the stronger looking spider, and, if you don’t meet their requirements, prepare to be a meal. All I can say is, I am sure glad that I am not a spider.
I was amazed to learn all about spiders and their weird preferences. I never really considered the fact that spiders consume one another for a means of fun and joy. The section of the blog that concentrated on spiders mating was very interesting. Who would of known that spiders actually choose who to mate with based on appearance? I guess that just goes to show there is more to everything than you originally thought. One thing this blog made me question was the fact that female spiders are more of the alpha dog. I started thinking about how with most animals the female is the more masculine. But with humans, we in society typically view males as the most dominant. I wonder why this is?
This type of behavior between male and female reminds me a lot of what happens between a male and female praying mantis. I found this video that explains that after a male is done mating with a female, she will devour him in order to give her eggs nutrients. Click Here.
Actually, spider is not the only animal die for sex. Male mantis also die for sex. The female mantis eat male’s head when they are mating. That pain can accelerate the progress of mating. Male mantis gain the title of die for his next generation. Insects’ world is very crazy. Actually, I think insects are really crazy creature. they have their bones outside of the body. Nad their shapes are all weird.
I’ve never liked spiders… this is very interesting to think about. I think with a lot of species with reproduction, survival of the fittest is prominent. This definitely applies here. If the female spider isn’t attracted to the male spider, I guess the next best thing is you might as well get food out of it to survive. I find it interesting that even if the female spider does like the male spider enough to mate with him, she still kills the spider. I’d imagine naturally if you mated with someone you wouldn’t want that spider to leave your life. This form of reproduction reminded me of Angler Fish reproduction, where similarly the male is in the weaker position than the female and a bizarre act forms. Check it out here! http://mudfooted.com/deep-sea-anglerfish-bizarre-reproduction/