If they do not leave quickly, the male orb-weaving spider will become a meal for the female after mating.
Known scientifically as Philoponella prominens, the male of this orb-weaving spider species possesses powerful legs that allow it to jump at speeds exceeding 80 cm/s, equivalent to 3 km/h. While many animals use their legs to escape predators, P. prominens relies on its superior jumping ability to evade the deadly embrace of its mate.
Immediately after mating, the male uses hydraulic pressure from its leg joints to leap away from the female.
According to researcher Zhang Shichang, the speed of the spider in the air is so fast that standard cameras cannot capture all the details. Shichang, an expert in spiders, discovered the commonality in the mating process of P. prominens, where the male always jumps away after fertilization.
Shichang and his team set up high-speed cameras to document this phenomenon, and they published their findings in the journal Current Biology earlier this week.
The male spider positions its front legs on the female, and as soon as mating is complete, this tiny creature uses hydraulic pressure from its leg joints to leap away. If it hesitates, the male may become a source of nutrition for the female to nurture her offspring.
In 155 mating trials, 152 instances saw the male successfully escape the female’s grasp. However, ultimately, 30 male spiders involved in the experiments had to sacrifice themselves for science and future progeny.
The male spider quickly jumps away from the female after completing the “mating ritual.”
To ensure that this jumping behavior is used for escape and serves no other purpose, the research team attempted to block the male spider’s jump. The results were clear: all 30 male spiders were unable to escape the female’s embrace and became a nourishing meal.
According to researcher Zhang Shichang, the male spiders are employing the 36th strategy from Sun Tzu’s Art of War to avoid being eaten. He describes their life-saving behavior as a “remarkable display of dynamics”, while we might refer to this as a fleeting one-night stand.
