Zoologists at Jinggangshan University in China discovered that Aterigena ligurica spiders pretend to be dead during sex (catalepsy) so that males don’t have to worry about being eaten. Results of the study published In the journal Current Zoology.
It is noteworthy that women behave this way only when they meet an attractive partner. If the guy doesn’t like them, they fight him.
This behavior of spiders had been noticed for a long time, but the reasons were unknown. One common version said that the male paralyzed the female with poison or chemical triggers, while the second suggested that the female paralyzed herself. It was the second version that turned out to be correct.
During the experiments, the scientists observed female spiders in three situations: when they showed sexual catalepsy during mating, when they pretended to be dead after being shaken in a test tube, and when they were under anesthesia that mimics chemicals produced by the male. Later, the insects were frozen to death and the body was ground for analysis.
As it turned out, during mating, the spiders pretended to die on their own. When injected into women in the same cases, their condition was more like anesthesia.
According to scientists, in this way the spider shows the man that he is safe and will not be eaten. Men are also aware that they are pretending. Shortly after mating is over, the male quickly moves away, the female flees from him.