sexual conflict
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These Male Spiders Evolved a Post-Sex Catapult to Escape Cannibalistic Females
Researchers in China have described yet another freaky sex habit of spiders (as if there weren’t enough already): Some male spiders launch themselves at great speed off their cannibalistic female partners, to avoid being eaten after copulating. The way they make their egress is similar to the mechanism at play in catapults, according to the…
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This Spider’s Mate Breaks Her Genitals So She Can’t Have Sex Ever Again
Male animals can be greedy about paternity. They have evolved a ton of different strategies to help them monopolize a female’s eggs. Beating up rivals is a general favourite. Some species use long bouts of sex to keep females away from new mates. Still others stop up female genitals with gooey plugs or bits of…
