2025/04/17 by Matjaž Kuntner, Xin Xu, Daiqin Li · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Psychology · #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Plant and animal studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/d17040281
openalex publication_date 2025/04/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
We report a sequence of unusual male behaviors observed in Nephila pilipes (Fabricius, 1793) (Araneae: Nephilidae Simon, 1894), a sexually size dimorphic tropical spider species in Singapore. We documented a male suitor using his mouth parts (chelicerae) rather than his copulatory organs (pedipalps) to repeatedly probe female genitals. The behaviors may have served as a strategy to assess the female’s mating status, functioned as a courtship strategy, or, most plausibly, represented an attempt to remove a genital plug. The documented chrono-sequence culminated in the male’s attempted commensalism, followed by an aggressive attack by the female, resulting in near-fatal injury to the male. Notably, the attack did not escalate into cannibalism, suggesting that the extreme size difference in Nephila may render small males unappealing as prey.