News Animals

Climate stress may undermine male spiders’ romantic gift giving

Males still wrap surprises for female spiders in silk but inside there’s just a bit of junk

A spider with its legs spread is pictured from below as it holds a white bundle in its legs.

A male Paratrechalea ornata woos with a silk-wrapped gift. Its contents might be a morsel of insect meat or something far less delectable, like a bit of exoskeleton. Biologists are studying how an unpredictable climate can affect gift choice.

Diego Battiste

By Susan Milius

Courtship dazzle in spiders can lose some zing in uncertain climates.

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