Animals: Black widow males pass on trick against death during sex
Certain spiders eat their partners after mating. The males of an Australian species reduce the risk by doing a special backwards somersault during sex. This trick is likely to be inherited.
Researchers from the Universities of Hamburg, Trier, and Rostock have discovered that male Australian redback spiders (Latrodectus hasselti) perform a backflip during mating to avoid being killed by the female's venom. This behavior, which involves curling their abdomen to minimize the female's bite, is passed down to their offspring and allows them to mate multiple times.
In contrast, males of the closely related New Zealand red katipo spider (Latrodectus katipo) do not exhibit this behavior and are not killed by the female. The study, published in Biology Letters, found that the backflip and abdominal curling are genetically controlled and independent traits. The researchers now aim to identify the specific genes responsible for this unusual behavior.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
