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Original poster

She has eaten him.

229 replies

TheLastTrainForTheCoast · 18/07/2024 23:11

My rather splendid female spider has today eaten her mate.

I am a little sad, they have been sharing a web for the last couple of weeks, I was beginning to think they had a Understanding . But alas, today Mr spider is no more.

For reference they are not pets, rather squatters that inhabit my ceiling.

OP posts:
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Strictlymad · 03/10/2024 11:47

Well this has made me titter 🤣 I wonder if she took out life insurance? Will they pay out in suspicious circumstances?

Autumnalfun · 03/10/2024 11:48

You’d think boy spiders would be able to warn each pther of this. Look mate, don’t hang around after sex, she’s gonna eat you. Saw it happen to billy last week. Run little man run. Evolution in practice.

Autumnalfun · 03/10/2024 11:49

T1Dmama · 03/10/2024 07:31

@coldcallerbaiter yeah praying mantis are ruthless…. I watched a zoo program and she’ll kill and eat the make if she doesn’t like him, also after mating… so the zoo keepers were feeding the female before introducing the male and removing him straight after mating .. poor males!!
I’ve also seen on programs where the spider lays her eggs inside the male and paralysis him…. So when they hatch they eat their dad as their first meal!!

Ah Jesus wish I’d not read that, that’s the stuff of horror movies.

Catsmere · 05/10/2024 11:06

I'm loving this thread! It definitely belongs in Classics. ETB is a phrase to live by.

On praying mantises, I just learned that the cannibalism is quite rare - under 30% of matings in the wild. Surprise, surprise, it was first observed in laboratories, home of unnatural behaviour in animals. What I did know is that there's also a good reason for it, for the female:

https://www.thoughtco.com/praying-mantis-sex-and-male-cannibalism-1968472

Praying Mantis Mating and Cannibalism

The female praying mantis is known for cannibalistic mating behavior: biting off the head or legs of her mate and eating them.

https://www.thoughtco.com/praying-mantis-sex-and-male-cannibalism-1968472

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