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 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