The female spider is distracted by the gift, the male feigns death later reviving to begin copulation
Posted on 10/04/2005 7:58:10 PM PDT by saquin
A British spider has developed a novel way of wooing dangerous females and avoiding getting eaten in the process.
The male nursery web spider (Pisaura mirabilis) faces an aggressive - and bigger - female when he feels the need to mate.
Some male spiders pay the ultimate price for a few moments of pleasure when the female devours them after mating. Even worse, some males are eaten before they have the chance to mate.
To overcome this problem the nursery spider has devised a strategy of offering his thumbnail-sized mate a love-token, such as a dead insect.
But after presenting the gift the male immediately feigns death and collapses at her feet.
And as she becomes preoccupied with sinking her jaws into the insect treat, the male revives, creeps under her and begins copulating.
The extraordinary lengths the male spider goes to are revealed by Trine Bilde, of Aarhus University, the first author of a study by Danish scientists published today in the journal Biology Letters.
Spider evolution is driven in part by a battle between the sexes: males make so many sperm that they can seek many partners through which to pass on their genes, while females have to focus their limited resources.
One way for males to increase their chance of success is to offer a prospective mate a gift of food that will help her make eggs. On rare occasions, some spider species do just this.
But sometimes the male himself becomes the gift and is eaten for his pains.
"It is important at what time in the process of copulation you get eaten," said Ms Bilde.
Over millions of years of sexual conflict, males of the nursery web spider have evolved their novel mating strategy, not seen before in nature, report Ms Bilde and her colleagues.
Ms Bilde called the male's plan - which happened in half the cases observed by the scientists - "death feigning in the face of sexual cannibalism".
It is likely that the males first evolved to present females with gifts, then evolved feigning death as well to boost the odds of living and having offspring with a new partner.
The spiders are common in Britain, where they spin distinctive bell-shaped webs around their young (nursery webs) for shelter.
The female spider is distracted by the gift, the male feigns death later reviving to begin copulation
Usually when I say that line, women run.
Besides, the squirrels have all the good jobs filled up.
OK, I'm convinced. When should I pick you up?
I'm out of town right now - but...
I'll be home for the weekend.
It's FLEET WEEK in SFO!!!
http://www.redbullairrace.com/
Step 1:) Lure beau into the vault room.
Step 2:) Secure room from escape while maintaining beaus blissful ignorance of coming fate.
Step 3:) Secure beau under plausible pretenses.
Step 4:) MWUH-HAH-HAH-HAAAA!
*cough*
Note: This is merely a framework, there are possible variations on this theme.
Also note: It may be necessary to have beau/object of desire sign a waiver form first..
I'm one of those odd people who doesn't think that creation/intelligent design and evolution are incompatible or mutually exclusive. I believe that evolution is actually an indication or evidence of intelligent design. That's how I see it anyway. You unnuhstayan?
I think we reflect the attributes of our Creator just as the rays that emit from the sun are reflections of its characteristics or being, if you will.
BTW, did you ever see the video of the octopus that learned how to open a glass jar to get to the lobster? As faskinatin as the learned (and crafty) spider star of this thread. Survival of the species always comes down to food and sex, doesn't it. :o)
LOL! My cat Elliott doesn't play the harmonica but he sometimes sounds like one. Harmewnica, maybe?
I thought you'd be honored, DD. :o)
Is it a one-off process for Ms. Spider, or does she go into the spider equivalent of heat periodically? Do the "tom spiders" fight each other?
Harmeownica is closer. LOL
I love cats, but there's an allergy sufferer in the house, so I'm left deprived.
Meow is me....
Huh?
You know me so well!
;-)
(too bad I'm in all day meetings this week - I'd be all over these!
DD
Consider yourself lucky with that staplegun chick!
LOL, I have to tell you, that I just had in the CD that has your tagline song on it.
:-)
Yeah!
BBIGTBAFO!
When I was in college I sang it in the bars (or attempted it). Now I sing it on hiking trips with my oldest son. Sometimes I sing it to the boys when I'm putting them to bed, though it's not really a lullaby.
How fun!
The last time I sang that one, in a fine Irish pub, I had had just enough "Water of Life" that I dang near wrapped my tongue around it...still didn't quite get it though. hehe
IMO it really isn't too hard to reconcile creation with evolution in a broad sense if you're just not too literal with the time spans involved - six days vs. fourteen billion years, or whatever the latest estimate of the age of the universe is - a lot of species could come and go in a period of time on a scale where one "day" equalled a couple of billion years.....
Funfhundertundfunfzigthousandfunfhundertfunfundfunfzig.
It's been a while, so my spelling might be off.
Translated?
555,555
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