Why does a female black widow spider eat the male after mating?

Answer 1

A Black Widow Spider belongs to the Arachnid family, it has no back bone. The spider got it's name Black Widow Spider because the female usually eats the male after mating. There are five different kinds of Widow species, a red widow is one of the different kinds of species. The Black Spider has fifteen times more venom than a Prarie Rattlesnake. The Black Widow Spider is the most dangerous and the most poisonus spider in the United States. A female Black Widow Spider is one and a half inches long, the male is about a fourth bigger than the female Black Widow Spider. A Black Widow Spider is about the size of your little toe. One female bite of a female Black Widow spider can kill a human being, false Black Widow Spiders are harmless.

A Black Widow can lay two hundred to nine hundred eggs, baby Black Widows hatch from their eggs in ten to thirty days. When baby Black Widow Spiders are born they only have each other to eat until they grow up and make their web, Black Widow's lay one hundred eggs but only about twenty five will survive. Baby Black Widows turn into adults in two or three months, when baby Spiders are born they can not bite, Female Black Widows are very shy that's why they bite.

The Brown Widow Spider and the Red Widow Spider are found in Florida and are related to the Black Widow Spider. A Black Widow Spider's habitat is in the United States of America, in dark places such as the corners of barns and sheds, in pipes, underneath rocks logs and under trash, in stone walls, under door steps and any where they live it has to have very warm weather.

A Black Widow Spider's food is flies, moths, crickets, reptiles, and small animals. A Black widow Spider's enemy is only a human being.

The Black Widow Spider's special characteristics: The female Black Widow bites effect children more than adults, a bite from a female Black Widow can cause yellow fever, vomiting and other bad sickness.

Black Widow Spiders weave shapless webs, Black Widows tips of their legs are oily so they do not get caught in their web when they are making it.

Females Black Widows eat Male Black Widows after they mate, sometimes the Male brings the Female a present like a insect so the Female does not eat the Male so quickly. A Male Black Widow has a yellow patch on it's back shaped like a hour glass, a Female Black Widow has a red patch on it's back shaped like a hour glass!!!

Answer 2

This doesn't always happen in latrodectus but it does in very many spider species and some insect species - mantids are famous for it.

The Australian redback, a close relative of the black widow actually does a sort of flip when he's mating so that the female can begin eating him. This suicidal behaviour was once thought to be a problem for Darwinian theory but in fact it supports it marvellously. The goal of biological life is not survival - that is a means to an end, the goal is to replicate your genes. If the spider can impregnate the female while she is chewing him to pieces then he will have succeeded. Many males die after mating even if they're not attacked by the female, further proof that biologically, they are finished with. Spiders always have cannibalistic tendencies, often male spiders - who are often much smaller than the females have the problem of mating before they get eaten.

The cannibalism doesn't stop there, either. When black widow spiderlings burst from their egg sack the first thing the little baby spiders will choose to eat? Their brothers and sisters! Perhaps this has the effect of insuring the survival of the largest and strongest but its pretty unpleasant. Amazingly the imperative is so strong that even if the spiderlings are given food, other insects to eat - they will still prefer the taste of their siblings...

Answer 3

In some animals, especially spiders, the male has many of the qualities that would qualify him as a tasty snack. Male spiders put a lot of effort before mating into behaviors that tell the female "Don't eat me! I'm not food!". This can involve special dancing, rhythmic tapping, or plucking web strands in a special pattern, or other ways to convince the notoriously touchy and difficult (and usually much larger) female that he's a lover, not a meal. After mating, of course, usually all bets are off, and he is well-advised to head for the hills before she wakes up and realizes she could really enjoy a post-mating snack. Some males aren't quick enough (or some females are hungrier than others) and they get to contribute to the eggs the female will lay in a direct way as construction material. There are certain insects that get around this common problem by bringing the female a snack (candy and flowers?) to distract her sufficiently for the male to enjoy his fun and still have time to get away. There may well be spiders that do this, too, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Anyway, I'm not sure that female widows are any more prone to eat the males than most other spiders, despite the folklore.

Answer 4

Black Widow Mating

Answer 5

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RE:
Why does a female black widow spider eat the male after mating?

Answer 6

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but she doesn't.

The commonly held belief that the black widow spider, Latrodectus mactans, eats her mate is largely myth. I'm not certain how this myth started, but the behavioral data on the subject simply don't support it--in fact, the data contradict this idea.

Sometimes after copulation, the females may act aggressively toward other males, but in general, the initial male leaves the scene unharmed. In fact, in some Latrodectus species, the male actually lives in the female's web for many weeks and may even share her food with her.

In other spiders, however, the male does die during the mating process. In Araneus pallidus, the male's mating position places him directly under the female's chelicerae, or piercing-sucking mouthparts. In the mating process, the male unintentionally impales himself on the female's chelicerae, and she does then eat him. But this does not occur in Latrodectus.

Answer 7

The reason of this sacrificial behaviour is : For the transmittion of an attribute to next generation, the gene must be transmitted. In beasts lots of genes are joint.As you know, every body is joint with his parents in 50% of the genes & also the children receive some of genes equally.On this basis, in sacrificial behaviours the beast helps the relatives to bear more children instead of that the beast participate in the transmittion directly. In this way the joint genes will be transmitted more to the next generation.So the black female widow spider gets needful & enough energy for breeding & raising the eggs by eating the male spider.Meanwhile the male spider genes has been transmitted indirectly.Actually it seems that each beast behaviour is to others advantage & vouch for the permanence of its genes directly or indirectly.So this is the aim.

Answer 8

many spiders (often) ate the male after mating (but no rule without exception)
so do some insects (e.g. mantis).
I think cannibalism is widespread in the arachnid kingdom. So the mostly smaller male is an easy to catch protein source (as denoted before).

Answer 9

The female needs protein for her developing eggs. The male just happens to be a handy source. Preying mantids do this too.

Answer 10

She's hungry. Sometimes, if the male brings her a bug when he comes to her, she won't eat him. And she won't eat him if she's not hungry.