Word: redbacks
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...mantis has nothing on its distant cousin, the Australian redback spider. The spiders too have turned copulation into a girl-eats-boy story. In this case, though, the male not only lets himself be devoured; he also performs acrobatics to make it happen. As soon as the male has put what is delicately known as his intromittent organ into his much larger mate, he turns a somersault--without slipping out--and dangles his juicy abdomen right in front of her mouth. Who could resist? Not the female, who usually begins chomping away...
This would still seem to be a dubious strategy, since the male necessarily mates only once. But male redbacks have a short life-span and rarely live long after copulation anyway. "It appears likely," says Andrade, "that one shot is all a redback male gets." By yielding to the female's consuming interest, he makes sure it is his best shot. --Michael D. Lemonick