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BOB HIRSHON (host)
Why spiders play possum. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.
Male nursery web spiders have a unique courtship behavior, according to behavioral ecologist Trine Bilde of the University of Aarhus in Denmark.
TRINE BILDE (University of Aarhus):
The male collects prey, which it wraps in white silk and it presents the prey to the female and this is what we call a nuptual gift. The female actually requires this nuptual gift in order to accept this male for a mating.
HIRSHON:
And to make sure the female spider pays attention to the gift and not to him, the mal discretely pretends to be dead.
TRINE BILDE:
Playing dead makes the female sort of focus on the food gift and once she’s occupied with consuming the gift she’s more likely to then accept the copulation.
HIRSHON:
I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the science society.