Study shows nursery web spiders offer gift to potential mates to prevent being eaten
Thursday, May 19, 2016 - 07:50
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark has found evidence that suggests male nursery web spiders offer potential female mates silk covered insect carcasses as a means of protection from being eaten. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, Søren Toft and Maria Albo describe experiments they carried out to determine the true reason behind the males offering the females gifts prior to attempting to copulate and what they found by doing so.