Media Releases

Male redback spiders evade cannibalism by mating with immature females

September 21, 2016

Male red­back spi­ders at risk of being can­ni­balised by their sex part­ners have devel­oped a sur­vival tac­tic: mat­ing only with females too young to eat them. May­di­anne C B Andrade of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Scar­bor­ough, one of the co-authors, told the Guardian the behav­iour was instinc­tive, not learned, and wide­spread. Read more.