Orb web spiders found to be better guards after sex
Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 08:02
in Biology & Nature
Previously, Daiqin Li and colleagues at the National University of Singapore found that the male orb web spider loses its sex organ, called a palp, due to it breaking off during sex because it allowed the male to continue pumping in sperm even as the male was either eaten by the female or fled the scene. Now new research by the same team has found that for those males that escape the female after mating, the loss of the heavy palp affords the survivors more stamina in warding off other would be suitors, thus helping to ensure that the original male produces offspring. The team has published a paper on their findings in the journal Biology Letters.