Posted on 10/22/2009 12:44:36 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Females of the Australian redback spider, one of the world's most poisonous spiders and a close relative to the black widow, demand 100 minutes of courting or else they usually cannibalize their male suitors, research finds.
Proving that bigger isn't always better in the mating game, the tiniest of males sometimes approach female redbacks after offering the critical 100 minutes of wooing and successfully mate without being eaten, according to the paper in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The study shows that puny males of this species can win at love without exerting much effort and begins to explain the extreme size differences between males and females among some spider species.
"Based upon our data of the timing of premature lethal cannibalism, it appears as though females are not tuned to select male size, but rather the duration of courtship," co-author Jeffrey Stoltz told Discovery News.
No, she doesn’t have a cast iron skillet.
parsy, who says LOL!
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