This science story takes the prize for hijacking the most bandwidth in my science feeds over the past few days. Just about every science site has picked it up in some way, shape or form. It has all the drama of a Shakespeare play rolled up into one biological eccentricity of a single spider species.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have known for some time that the male sex organ, called a palp, in orb-web spiders is often broken off during copulation with females; what hasn't been so clear is why. Now, new research by Daiqin Li of the National University of Singapore and colleagues have found, as they describe in their paper published in Biology Letters, that by breaking off their palp, the male spiders ensure that more of their sperm enters the female after he runs away or is eaten by his partner.
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via PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories on 2/2/12
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have known for some time that the male sex organ, called a palp, in orb-web spiders is often broken off during copulation with females; what hasn't been so clear is why. Now, new research by Daiqin Li of the National University of Singapore and colleagues have found, as they describe in their paper published in Biology Letters, that by breaking off their palp, the male spiders ensure that more of their sperm enters the female after he runs away or is eaten by his partner.
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