So, since it is getting closer and closer to Halloween, which I have stated before is one of my favorite holidays, I am looking for some scary or just plain weird stuff to blog about. This time, I am going to blog about a close relative to the Black Widow Spider. I found this article also at msn.com science.
They call them Redbacks in Australia, but if you look at the photo – they look exactly like a Black Widow. This story relates the mating procedure of the Redback Spider, and how if the male does not do his courting to the specific desires of the large female, he is devoured by her.
Now, I am not much for cannibalism or murder, but it does make me stop and think for a minute, if all the idiots who had ever hit on me were dead, there would be a lot fewer idiots on the planet. Am I right ladies? I am kidding, it is just a thought not an action.
These poor male spiders are much smaller than the female, and they do not know until they have completed their mating ritual if they have performed to her satisfaction. "The male will exclusively remain on the female's abdomen and then will insert his intromittent organ and perform a copulatory somersault and the female will begin consuming him”, according to a researcher from the University of Toronto.
How sad is that? What is even worse is that the other males are waiting at the edge of her web to fight with each other for the opportunity to mate with her. Mate with her or die, which ever of the two.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment