为了在捕食者众多的环境中确保后代的生存，雌性蜘蛛会采取极端策略，如选择合适的雄性伴侣并在交配后将其吃掉或驱逐。然而，新研究揭示了一种令人震惊的现象：雄性蜘蛛会在交配后留下部分生殖器官，增加自己下一批卵子的收集概率。这种远程交配行为不仅增加了精子数量和传输速度，而且揭示了进化过程中物种间复杂而微妙的竞争与合作。
To a female orb web spider, a suitable male can look like a mate—and a meal. For these spiders, the dating game has turned into a deadly dance of evolutionary one-upsmanship.
The female spider can choose when to cut off intimate relations by eating her partner, or kicking him out. This dynamic has led males to an unlikely strategy to make sure they have some say in the matter: self-castration.
Males are able to leave part or all of their organ inside of a female, which decreases the odds the female will be able to mate again. But new research shows that when a male leaves his whole kit-and-caboodle behind, his likelihood of fathering the next batch of eggs is much higher. Why? His parting gift keeps on giving, even after he is gone.
This remote-copulation technique actually boosts the amount and speed of sperm transferred to the female. The behavior is described in the journal Biology Letters. [Daiqin Li et al, Remote Copulation: male adaptation to cannibalism, link to come]
So for these unlucky fellas, it is better to have loved—and lost.
—Katherine Harmon
The female spider can choose when to cut off intimate relations by eating her partner, or kicking him out. This dynamic has led males to an unlikely strategy to make sure they have some say in the matter: self-castration.
Males are able to leave part or all of their organ inside of a female, which decreases the odds the female will be able to mate again. But new research shows that when a male leaves his whole kit-and-caboodle behind, his likelihood of fathering the next batch of eggs is much higher. Why? His parting gift keeps on giving, even after he is gone.
This remote-copulation technique actually boosts the amount and speed of sperm transferred to the female. The behavior is described in the journal Biology Letters. [Daiqin Li et al, Remote Copulation: male adaptation to cannibalism, link to come]
So for these unlucky fellas, it is better to have loved—and lost.
—Katherine Harmon
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