Hungry or not, ready to eat

1996/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia

To say that female weapons eat males is not new. Scientists believe that when the female is hungry, she considers the friend of fertilization as a lover and a meal. However, the female did not “give” only when the male is hungry. After testing three centimeters of spiders, two Swedish biologists realize this.

Some females were hungry and others were fed. Both hungry and well saturated showed the same passion for male eating. In addition, despite the influx of lovers, the females showed no desire for fertilization.

At least the male does not get any benefit from this practice of “cannibalism”, but we can think that it only hurts the female herself. After saturation the female does not pay attention to fertilization. What then is the cause of this strange behavior?

According to biologists, this passion for swallowing the male may be related to the egg-laying of the females. Female spiders lay their eggs once. In addition, the amount of eggs placed depends on the size of the female and, of course, the amount of food you have ingested as a young child. That is, therefore, the reason why the female dreams of an excellent food when approaching the male rather than sex.