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The magical launch helps male spiders avoid being eaten by their partners

Mating is often a nightmare for spiders because of the female’s preference for cannibalism. But the male orb weaver spiders know how to protect themselves.

In a study published in the journal Current Biology April 25th, everyone science In order to escape, male orb-weaver spiders often jump off the female at speeds of up to 82 cm/s, or 3 km/h.

Shichang Zhang, an expert from Hubei University (China) – lead author of the study said he was “excited” when he discovered this tactic.

Video: Male spiders escape from their mates to avoid being eaten

In the study by Zhang and colleagues, they found that in 155 successful matings of spherical weaver spiders, 152 cases of male spiders ejected and survived.

Three males who failed in their attempt to leave were killed and eaten by their mates.

According to the team, the escape mechanism of male spherical weaver spiders is relatively simple. When mating, they press their forelimbs on the female. Having successfully mated, these spiders use hydraulic pressure from their leg joints to bounce off their mate’s body.

Zhang believes that female spiders often judge males by their ability to escape.

“Through galloping, males can escape predation. While females can select high-quality males because kinetic performance can be directly correlated with the physical condition of the males. male”, Zhang said.

According to this expert, even when mating is complete, the female can still decide to accept the male’s sperm or not.

Unlike mammals, spiders have structures called seminiferous tubules to store sperm. The female can decide to use these sperms to fertilize her eggs, or discard them by squeezing out or changing the pH to destroy them.

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