Spiders That Aren't Dying to Reproduce

It is commonly known that there is sexual cannibalism in mating, especially with specific species of spiders. Female spiders can decide to eat the males before, during or after mating. Male spiders have tired to find different ways to distract the female to avoid being eaten, which has led to a new type of defense. They tie up the female before sex with their spider silk so they can escape before the female gets free. Alissa G. Anderson, a graduate student in biology at the University of Nebraska, said that she had not witnessed any cannibalism in the nursery. This could have been because these spiders always wrapped up the females so there was never a chance for them to be eaten. Males with shorter legs and ones that couldn’t produce silk were eaten more often. Results have shown that females who are wrapped up have a higher number of eggs which has benefits in both sexual and evolution terms.