In some spider species, males have a valid reason to flee immediately after intercourse.
That was discovered by a team of Chinese scientists Philoponella is prominent The men catapult immediately after mating, to avoid being killed and eaten by their partner.
Spiders use two of their legs to push themselves for a second, leaning on the female. This technique was first described by a study published in the journal Current Biology.
To make this discovery, the use of high-speed and high-resolution cameras is necessary, the lead author of this work, Shichang Zhang, of Hubei University, explained to AFP.
Researchers are studying sexual selection in this species, which lives in communities of up to 300 individuals.
Of the 155 observed mating, the man fled 152 cases, thus surviving the encounter.
The three men who failed to push were quickly caught, killed and eaten by their wives.
And 30 men prevented by researchers from catapulting themselves suffered the same fate. So scientists have concluded that this mechanism is essential to escape the sexual cannibalism of women.
Men can marry up to six times to the same woman, jumping away, returning through the woven yarn, then marrying and moving away again.
The jumps made were impressive, with a top speed of 65 centimeters per second on average, and an acceleration equal to 20 G, or 20 times the acceleration felt in freefall.
In the air, spiders rotate about 175 times per second.
According to Shichang Zhang, women judge men’s sexual ability by their ability to escape.
By catapulting, a male can escape the sexual cannibalism of the female, and the female can choose a male performer, since kinetic performance can be directly attributed to the male’s physical condition.he explained.
Female spiders tend to keep the sperm deposited by a male, and decide whether to use it or not to fertilize their eggs.
Thus, females can only receive sperm from males who have managed to catapult each other, according to Shichang Zhang. In the future, he wants to study whether there is indeed a connection between these leaps and maturity success.
Source: Radio-Canada
