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- Nov 25, 2011
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While having a stimulating conversation here on AB with a couple members, I thought I would toss up a thread discussing different breeding strategies found in the various true spider families/genera/species. For a nice little talk on Latrodectus hasselti, look here. While Latrodectus may be one of the most well known spiders with regards to mating, there are plenty of other groups that exhibit interesting behaviors when attracting and/or selecting mates or breeding.
One oddity that cropped up not too long ago and was featured by many small online news outlets (shocking, I know!) is the coin spider in the genus Herrenia. After mating, the male will castrate himself in order to plug up the epigynum of the female and become lighter and more agile so he can mate-guard the female he just mated with. This is an interesting tactic all in itself because while male spiders in several species will break off at least part of their emboli to serve as a plug, self-castration is a little bit odd. The evolutionary selection for this strategy must have been extraordinary, with my assumption being that males are extremely prevalent, while females are few and far between. I would be curious to see what happens if a virgin male is able to get past the castrated fellow and mate with the female.
There are a couple other examples I can think of, but I'd rather have others weigh in first to see if this thread is worth keeping going and because I'm sure you all know some pretty crazy stuff I haven't come across yet
One oddity that cropped up not too long ago and was featured by many small online news outlets (shocking, I know!) is the coin spider in the genus Herrenia. After mating, the male will castrate himself in order to plug up the epigynum of the female and become lighter and more agile so he can mate-guard the female he just mated with. This is an interesting tactic all in itself because while male spiders in several species will break off at least part of their emboli to serve as a plug, self-castration is a little bit odd. The evolutionary selection for this strategy must have been extraordinary, with my assumption being that males are extremely prevalent, while females are few and far between. I would be curious to see what happens if a virgin male is able to get past the castrated fellow and mate with the female.
There are a couple other examples I can think of, but I'd rather have others weigh in first to see if this thread is worth keeping going and because I'm sure you all know some pretty crazy stuff I haven't come across yet