When times get lean, male spiders may cheat more when wooing females by offering them worthless gifts of leftovers or dry leaves, rather than tasty food.
Certain male spiders in South America usually give their partners a tasty snack before mating. But in stressful environmental conditions, males may"cheat" in their mating ritual by offering females a useless ball of silk instead of a nutritious meal, a new study has found.When a male Paratrechalea ornata spider wants to mate, he'll snag an insect and prepare it for a female, said study co-author Maria Albo, a biologist at the University of the Republic in Uruguay.
But some P. ornata males try to mate without going through the hassle of giving a gift. Instead of packaging a piece of food, these males will wrap up something not so tasty, like a leaf or even the leftover bits of an insect they've already eaten. The team collected spiders along the river and checked what was inside their silk balls. In the less-stressful, southern population, males carried worthless gifts just 38% of the time. But in the more-stressful, northern population, males had worthless gifts a whopping 96% of the time.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
The Pioneer Woman Has the Prettiest Vintage-Inspired Food Storage Containers & They Start at Just $3These sturdy and chic storage containers are a must for every home!
Read more »
China’s bankers take up cards, Wagner’s leaderless fighters and Spain’s isolated soccer chiefChina’s bankers are learning to play a poker-like card game to woo domestic investors.
Read more »
Logan Square robbery: 3 men robbed at gunpoint, Chicago police sayPolice said there were 4 male suspects involved in the armed robbery.
Read more »