John Whitfield of Nature reports this sad, sad tale of male spider destiny. “Immediately after [mating], [they] become motionless,” says Foellmer. “Males show the typical dead posture, with legs folded under the body. Their hearts stop within 15 minutes.”
The dead male’s inflated palp remains wedged inside the female.. This prevents her from mating again and gives his sperm crucial minutes to fertilize her eggs. “The female cannot pull the male out for at least 15-25 minutes,” says Foellmer. “Other males try hard to pull the dead male out, but often fail.”
Like many spiders, the female eventually eats her deceased ex, but she is a bystander to his demise. Males probably put their whole selves into mating because finding a female is so onerous. Such extreme investment is common in spiders – others are so exhausted by sex that they stagger away and die; still more encourage the female to eat them, as it allows them to mate for longer.
But Argiope is, so far, the only animal found to be programmed to die during mating, says Foellmer. The report he co-authored is “Spontaneous male death during copulation in an orb-weaving spider,” published by Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
If you’ve read this far, be sure to check out these other great Nature stories on spider follies:
Spider and fly swap roles
Silky doodles may confuse spiders’ enemies
Spider scents attract prey
Eight-legged antics
Smaller spiders are better lovers
And to continue your research on wacky sex antics of animals, may I recommend…
What? No link on how tough they have it? I must do my own search? (Okay, so I didn’t take the mayfly course…) As for Argiope, I await Sweetwind’s observations. :-)
OK I don’t have anything to say about the spider but I always think it’s neat that the word “ephemeral” comes from the greek word for mayfly, which is “ephemeron.” Thus something ephemeral lasts for only a brief period of time, and ephemera of heavenly bodies or spacecraft are the current (but rapidly expiring) descriptions of their trajectories. That’s your bio-etymology for the day! :-)
That’s as good as Living, Loving, Lusting, Wed, Dead! You scientific types are amazing. Honestly.
…it’s living, lusting, loving, wed, dead. We science types believe in cause and effect; lust is the cause and love is the effect. <grin>
Every just-mated male argiope = dead with a tiny smile on his face.
(oops, forgot to talk about why mayflies are epemeral, although you probably got the point already!) After metamorphosis is complete and the mayfly emerges from the mud of the riverbed complete with wings, it lives for only one day. Which it of course spends flying around over the water, frenetically mating with other mayflies. Most people think it’s awful they have only one day to live, but that’s just mammalian chauvinism! They actually have quite a respectible lifespan, but 99.9% of it is in the larval form where people aren’t aware of them.
…in the waiting room of my doctor’s office. The National Geographic had a whole photoessay, including a self-portrait of the photographer with a dozen or so of the critters hanging off his hat and beard. (When you only have a limited time to “do it” your hurry can make you indiscriminate!<g>) Hey, there’s even a page for it at the National Geographic website.
Hey, thanks for the info and the link. Who needs the entire mayfly course when one has access to National Geographic and a wait in a doctor’s office?
Poor guys… reminds me of Sara Teasdale’s poem “Barter”: “And for a breath of ecstasy/ Give all you’ve been, or could be.” I consider this barter to be a bit unbalanced, but only the male Argiope knows for sure, and dead spiders tell no tales.
It sounds as though this will make a useful plank for supporters of Richard Dawkins’ ‘selfish gene’ theories. (An article touching on this subject and others can be found here. It’s quite long, and written to make a point, but makes intersting reading)
…that lust is usually quite discriminating (although alcohol can have an effect here).
With regard to ferreting out useful information in otherwise unoccupied time: I remember reading a short bio of a CEO who increased his vocabulary by keeping a dictionary on his desk, which he read whenever he telephoned someone and was put ‘on hold’.
Then you agree with me that the more typical order, at least among sober humans, is living, LOVING, lusting,… rather than our fearless administrator’s version of living, lusting, loving. Of course, RJ is using a euphemism for the physical activity, not the emotional entanglement we humans find ourselves in from time to time. Perhaps the typical argiope male consumes large quantities of some alcoholic nectar before taking the suicide plunge… That would explain the indiscriminate lust.
Great idea on keeping the dictionary handy while on telephone hold, also. At least we’ll no longer need one handy for telemarketing pitches… if we can ever get through to the DON’T CALL directory.
Lust comes first, then love. Lust is an attraction felt by an individual that draws that person into making contact with the object of their (hoped for) affection. Love is when the attraction is felt mutually and is reciprocated, and this can only occur after the initial contact – which was motivated by lust.
…or maybe it’s only that danged male/female thing. I could have sworn that lust means a whole lot more than just attraction. And that your “loving” verb was a delicate way of saying,
—-ing the poor spider to death.
Gee, I wish I’d known all these years that the gentlemen making contact with me were actually lusting in their hearts. I thought they merely needed help with their French homework or were being gallant, or Southernly hospitable, or otherwise just friendly. Thanks for the insight.
:-)
The Chambers Dictionary:Lust n strong sexual desire; passionate desire; eagerness to possess; longing; appetite; relish (rare); pleasure (Spenser and Shakesp).-vi to desire eagerly (with after or for); to have strong sexual desire; to have strong desires. [OE lust pleasure].
Me:To summarise, from a (heterosexual) male point of view, if all the atoms in the universe were transformed into breasts, there would still not be enough breasts. The degree of lust engendered is affected by the perceived quality of the breasts according to the personal tastes of the viewer. Love comes into play once it has been ascertained that the breasts in question are friendly breasts that it might be worth settling down with. With careful training from an early age however, this can happen very quickly after the male in question has been made aware of the putative presence of the breasts (it is not actually necessary to observe the breasts, a reasonable certainty that they exist is enough to ensure follow-up action to be taken concerning their affability).
I am of course speaking of other males; I myself am a paragon of virtue who would far rather go shopping for cushions than indulge in such outmoded and unseemly behaviour.
Today’s game is guess the BS level; answers on a postcard to Germaine Greer(on the grounds that you know she knows the answer).
Must…look….elsewhere….for….tomorrow’s….science…..quote…..
So you’re saying–gee… that RJ is right– that the hetero male indeed lusts first, based on whatever particular physical aspect of the female happens to intrigue him. And then, perchance, he may notice that this physical aspect comes attached to a brain or an especially neat personality, or if he gets really lucky, both. What a relief, Alan, that you have conquered that unseemly and outmoded behavior, opting instead for the pleasure of cushion shopping :-). Your significant other has found herself quite a catch! I’m proud of you for overcoming those baser instincts in your efforts to appear worthy in the eyes of your breast-er- soul-mate.
In my own totally unscientific poll (one male), it seems that love and lust CAN occur simultaneously, at least, in rare cases. This poll has soothed my psyche.
As usual, you have given us THE final answer on this most significant of all Sciscoop topics.
Women everywhere thank you for your candid and astute explanation as to why males gaze in the area of our sternums rather than our eyes when they try to converse with us.