As per the new study, it has found that the male spiders allow sexual cannibalism. A study has cleared that the female black-widow spiders and praying mantis most often eat their partners after sex.
They did it only because of having healthier babies.
The study has been experimented at the University of Hamburg in Germany and the researchers stated in their report that male orb-web spiders make this ultimate evolutionary sacrifice for the good health of his offspring.
However male spiders offering themselves up to gain access to mating opportunities and to prolong their mating duration or called sex. The female gnaw on them, the males prolonged their sex; making it more likely they will inseminate their partner and can snack on him during sex.
The exact meaning of Sexual cannibalism is of eating by one partner to the other after sex.
Talking about the study, Klaas Welke told LiveScience, “Of the survivors, half go on to find a second mate while the others try again for the same female.Two main hypotheses explain the evolution of sexual cannibalism.”
It could be a “paternal investment into their own offspring, and they provide females with nutrients”, he added.
In fact , in this case, males pretends to be much smaller than their mates as one-tenth as heavy, and researchers weren’t sure how much nutritional benefit the females can gain from such pipsqueak partners.
Meanwhile, from the report it has been cleared that the process of Sexual cannibalism may help to increase male reproductive capacity and may be very beneficial in a species with a high paternity insurance and a low rate of polyandry as found in Argiope bruennichi.
