PALP.co.uk

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have known for some time that the male sex organ, called a palp, in orb-web spiders is often broken off during copulation with females; what hasn’t been so clear is why. Now, new research by Daiqin Li of the National University of Singapore and colleagues have found, as they describe in their paper published in Biology Letters, that by breaking off their palp, the ...

Perhaps it is not a thought that crosses the minds of the average male, but spiders have more to consider than most other creatures when it comes to choosing a mate. Biologists have long known that some male spiders sacrifice their genitals in the act of reproduction and that doing so leaves them sterile, but no one could adequately explain why this was so. An answer, however, may now be at hand ...

Scientists say genitalia of male orb-web spider keep pumping even after their owner gets eaten by female