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What They Do For Love (Insect Love)

Female wasp spiders are not paragons of sexual fidelity, but then why should they be? They're interested in obtaining the best genetic match available, which generally means as many sexual contacts with male spiders as possible.

It's a case of let the best boy spider genes win.

Of course, male wasp spiders have more selfish concerns. They want to perpetuate only their own genetic lines. As a result, write German biologists in the journal Behavioral Ecology, males go to remarkable and painful lengths (at least anthropogenically speaking) to ensure no offspring result from their partners' subsequent dalliances.

During mating, the much-smaller male wasp spider clambers up beneath the female and inserts a transformed leg filled with sperm into the female, sort of like inserting a ski boot into its binding.

The female ends the episode a moment later by attacking her partner and killing him if he doesn't get away quickly enough. The male, though, leaves more than a little of himself behind.

“When the male detaches himself from the female,” said University of Bonn biologist Gabriele Uhl, “in more than 80 percent of cases, the tip of his genital breaks off.”

Uhl and colleagues contend that the, uh, snapped off appendage serves as a kind of chastity belt. By studying affected female spiders, they found that subsequent copulations with other males were significantly reduced – a situation that helps ensure that the first male will prevail.

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