Maevia Inclemens - Reproduction and Lifecycle

Reproduction and Lifecycle

Each morph accounts for 50% of the adult males, and they make the same number of attempts to court females, but using a different courting display. Before looking for a mate, a male spider spins a small, flat web on a surface and ejaculates into it. He then loads the semen into syringe-like receptacles in both palps, and then searches for a female.:581

After sighting a female, the tufted morph pushes himself as high as possible with the last three pair of legs, and claps with the foremost pair, while at the same time waving the palps up and down, and swinging the abdomen from side to side,:95 usually about 9 centimetres (3.5 in) from the female.:161-162 In contrast, the gray morph crouches down and points the foremost two pairs of legs directly forward, crosses the tips of the legs creating a triangle-like configuration, holds his orange-colored palps beneath his forward eyes, and glides back and forth in stationary or receding semi-circles in front of the female, :95 at 3 centimetres (1.2 in) away.:161-162 The movements of the two morphs are identical later in the sequence.:95, 98

When receptive, females respond similarly to both male types: approach and settle; extend the foremost pair of legs or tap with them.:99 Both male morphs typically end their initial display and start leg-clapping and zig-zag dancing.:103, 106

When tufted males clap, females look towards them and display a greater number of tap displays to them than to the gray morph. Females also respond to tufted morphs' clapping more often by settling than for gray males.:102 However, after the females look towards the males, gray males approach the female more often than the tufted male.:102 Females often tip their abdomens from side to side.:102

Finally the male mounts and copulates with the female. Afterward, the male generally dismounts and the two pair usually run away from each other. However, the male sometimes chases the female and tries to copulate again.:103, 106

In an experiment, 12 tufted (52%) and 14 gray males (54%) copulated with females after courtship. At the end of copulation, females tried to capture and eat the males, but in the same experiment only one tufted and one gray male were killed. A count of offspring showed no differences in numbers of spiderlings from the two morphs. However, gray males got females' attention more quickly within 8 centimetres (3.1 in) while tufted males were quicker between 8 and 30 centimetres (3.1 and 12 in) from the females. The continuation of two male morphs may be an example of a mixed Evolutionarily Stable Strategy, in which both morphs are genetically determined by their fathers' morphs, and both are equally successful in their different ways.