Spiders counter female cannibalism by increasing sperm transfer

Representative Image

According to a study, male spiders have evolved behavioural mating strategies to increase their chances of copulation despite the risk of being eaten by their mates.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have discovered that male spiders make choices on maximising their mating success when they are at risk of being cannibalised by their female mates. They published their findings in Communications Biology.

Led by Associate Professor Li Daiqin from the NUS Department of Biological Sciences, the researchers found that a male chooses one of its paired sexual organs with more sperm for the first copulation with a cannibalistic female. Also, a male transfers significantly more sperm if a female is cannibalistic or when the female is of a much larger physical size.

The outcome also opens new research questions on the ability of a male spider to differentiate the sperm quantities between his palps and on the mechanisms involved in the palp selection after assessing his cannibalistic partner.

By further studying Nephilengys malabarensis, a spider species exhibiting sexual cannibalism, the researchers have revealed that it is sperm volume detection, rather than left-right palp dominance, that plays a prominent role in the selection of the male palp.

Associate Prof Li said, "This study sheds light on how male mating syndrome relates to the levels of sexual cannibalism."

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