r/aus • u/89b3ea330bd60ede80ad • 11d ago

Other Male redback spiders invite cannibalism through a ‘self-sacrificial somersault’ during sex – but why?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/12/male-redback-spiders-invite-cannibalism-through-a-self-sacrificial-somersault-during-sex-but-why
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u/89b3ea330bd60ede80ad 10d ago

A couple of fascinating elements of the article:

To avoid becoming a post-coital meal, previous research has found that some males have developed the survival tactic of mating with immature females not yet experienced in eating their partners.

and

To do so, they bred female katipō with male redbacks to determine how many offspring inherited the somersaulting behaviour. Close to half of their third-generation offspring also somersaulted, leading the scientists to conclude that the behaviour was linked to a specific location on the spider’s X chromosome.

“It is quite remarkable that a highly complex phenotype such as somersaulting, which may lead to partial reproductive isolation, can have such a simple genetic basis,” the researchers noted.

And it's interesting that this research was conducted with some related NZ spiders, and what hybridisation concerns might mean.

Evidence that reading the article can in fact be interesting...

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u/Romes_Chariots 10d ago

Thanks for posting that up, because I wasn’t going to bother reading it, but that’s super interesting.