Image: Flickr/AJC ajcann.wordpress.com
Spider sex can be pretty complicated... and kinky. Take wolf spiders, for example. It's well known that female wolf spiders have a predilection for eating their partners during courtship, a behavior known as sexual cannibalism. Males, in turn, have developed their own tactics to avoid being consumed while still getting it on. This includes offering a "nuptial gift" of a tasty snack--for example, a dead fly or an eggsac from another female. The gift has been thought to help curb the female's appetite, and/or to function as a physical shield that the male can hide behind. But, the action doesn't stop there! This study, from 2006, describes a separate behavior adopted by male wolf spiders to avoid sexual cannibalism: playing dead! Known in scientific circles as "thanatosis," it seems pretty effective for the male wolf spider: 100% of males who played dead were successful at copulating, versus ...
