What can be the limit of a male's desire to have his female partner reject other males (of same species) only because he wants his genes to be carried forward?
If men think finding a nice partner to settle down and raise children with is tough, consider the plight of the male Australian redback spider. Instead of personality conflicts, spats over in-laws and financial worries, imagine that immediately after the first time you have sex, your partner — who is 100 to 200 times your body weight — will eat you alive.
Not the ideal honeymoon, perhaps. But redback males, who get only one mating opportunity — an uncommon occurrence in nature — have a few tricks up their (eight) sl
eeves.In the process of mating, the much smaller male (Female (left) and male (right) Australian redback spiders) somersaults to place his abdomen over the female's mouthparts. In about 2 out of 3 cases, the female consumes the male while mating continues. Males who are not eaten die soon after mating.
The act of sacrificing himself allows the male two advantages over males who are not eaten. The first is that males who were eaten were able to copulate for a longer period and thus fertilise more eggs. The second is that females who had eaten a male were more likely to reject subsequent males.
Experts say, “It shows that males are really tracking the selection pressures that they’re facing in an environment — they’re aware of male density and the amount of competition they’re going to be facing. On the one hand, they want to provision themselves to survive this trip, On the other hand, they have to develop quickly so that they become sexually mature in time to mate with the virgin females before the females mate with someone else.”
The Redback spider males volunteer to suicide, only to ensure their genes are carried forward.
Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider
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