VORACIOUS female spiders just cannot help trying to eat suitors before sex. Why? It's their aggressive personalities. Females of several spider and mantis species dine on their partners, but only after acquiring the sperm necessary to fertilize their eggs. Behavioral scientists are studying this trait to see if there is potential for it to be shared by all females across the species. "I'd say the male spider got off easily," remarked New York City attorney John Rensdorf when asked about how aggressive females could be or if he, specifically, had encountered inherently dangerous behavior in women. Rensdorf went on to say, "My ex-wife took most of my pension, half of our assets, my house in the Hamptons and for the record, all of my dignity." Mr. Rensdorf noted his ex-wife, Margaret, was also an attorney which could count toward the aggressive treatment of her ex-husband.
Many of the men who responded to the survey answered they, too, felt the male spider had an easy time of it when dealing with the female of its species. One respondent, who chose to remain anonymous wrote, "People think I am a geek or nerd because I have online friends and I attend Star Trek seminars dressed as Mr. Sulu. So, perhaps I am a nerd, but I have never known the scathing glare of an angry female lover nor have I had a girlfriend destroy my life at her whim. In fact, I've never had a girlfriend ever, so perhaps I am ahead of the game by not playing the game." The survey was then signed by his mother and notarized by a loan officer from a bank near his home.
It is important to consider the need to pass on DNA information successfully in order to ensure a type of immortality on behalf of the male. By providing his mate with a good meal, the male spider increases his own reproductive success. With that logic, does sexual intercourse become the ultimate sacrifice (death) instead of the ultimate rush (orgasm) for any male? Many of the men responded to this question by stating this was a personal preference and an affirmative answer was in directly relation to the amount of pornography available, or the speed of their internet connection.
It is interesting to note the urge to prolong a male spider's genetic code through the generations doesn't explain the behaviour of females that opt for dinner instead of sex, as fishing spiders (Dolomedes triton) often do. "Eating your mate during or after copulating, that's no big deal. Eating your mate beforehand, that's weird," says Chadwick Johnson at the University of Toronto, Canada. The female fishing spiders remarked, "Telling your girlfriend she doesn't look fat in those pants when, in fact she really does, is what's weird Chadwick."
But Johnson and Andrew Sih at the University of California, Davis, think the behaviour is part of a "voracity talk-to-the-hand syndrome".
(Behavioral Ecology and Arachnid Kama Sutra Volume 23, Issue 6)
