Daddy long legs perform fellatio—and other wild facts about how these arachnids mate
Some female daddy longlegs will perform fellatio, perhaps to avoid potential violence from males, while males of another species entice females with a secretion on their penises
Daddy longlegs, also known as harvestmen, exhibit mating behaviors that are surprising and unique. Researchers from Comenius University in Slovakia discovered that some females engage in a behavior called "fellatio" to prevent potential violence from males during mating. In one species, males secrete a substance on their penis that attracts females, while in another, females lick the males' penises to shorten the duration of copulation.
In the first species, around 91% of females showed resistance to mating, and when rejected, males exhibited aggression, leading to fractures and even death in some cases. This behavior contrasts with spiders, where females often eat the males. In the second species, males have a sac on their penis containing a nonsperm liquid, and females often lick it, leading to multiple mating attempts.
The researchers believe that the aggressive behavior in the first species may be due to male-to-male competition, while the second species' behavior could be due to the males' preference for a female that is willing to reproduce with them.
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