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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Speedy catapulting saves spiders from predators: their mates

After a sexual encounter, the male of an Asian spider species vaults off the female at a rate that can exceed 80 centimetres per second.
Two Philoponella prominens spiders mating.

High-stakes encounter: the mating of two Philoponella prominens will end with either the male’s rapid exit or his death. Credit: Zhang, S. et al. Curr. Biol. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.03.051 (2022).

Some male spiders catapult away from amorous encounters to avoid becoming a post-coital snack for their cannibalistic mates1.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01134-y

References

  1. Zhang, S. et al. Curr. Biol. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)00485-7 (2022).

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