The three unfortunate males that did not catapult away from mates met their demise.
Male orb-weaving spiders risk it all to get intimate with female mates—even their lives. Like a number of spider species, these silk web architects participate in sexual cannibalism, where typically females feast upon male mates or nibble on their appendages during or after sex. But the males of one particular orb-weaving spider species,have evolved a catapulting maneuver that saves them from becoming a post-coital meal.
Zhang and his colleagues captured the catapulting action with high-resolution cameras, which revealed unique way the male orb-weaving spiders extend their legs. Credit: Shichang Zhang “We found that the surface area of the tibia-metatarsus joint in the first pair of legs is significantly larger than that of any other joints,” Zhang said, which “is a little different from leg movement in other spiders, such as the jumping spider.”
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