Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Male spider ditches penis, gains fighting power
[ Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:04:39 GMT ]

Nephilengys malabarensis male and female showing extreme sexual dimorphism where the much smaller male is resting on the female’s abdomen after escaping from female cannibalism via emasculation during copulation. The self-emasculated male palp (red arrow) is lodged in the female’s epigynum.After leaving its detachable penis to finish inseminating the female, the male orb-web spider fights to the death to protect the impregnated gal. Without the extra weight of its sexual organs, this spider can outlast its competition, new research has found.


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