A Day in Paradise

CBC Radio | Quirks & Quarks | Past Shows

Now that is just weird!

Maydianne Andrade has discovered, the redback spider has added a rather brutal twist to the cannibalistic mating ritual. Like most spiders, the female redback has two separate sperm storage organs. That means the male needs to mate with her twice to maximize his reproductive success. The catch is that the female redback likes to start eating the male while she’s mating with him. To get to the second mating, the male redback has developed a trick where he sucks in his belly, as it were, to protect his vital organs from the female’s attack. This allows him to survive long enough to mate once, court her again, and mate with her a second and last time before she finally does him in.

The short blurb doesn’t talk about the male redback has 2 “copulatory organs” and breaks them off to use as a “plug” to ensure no other spider mates.

Listen to the mp3 for the gory details.