Love Story of Jumping Spider (Carrhotus xanthogramma) ep03 Courtship ネコハエトリの求愛

After the fight, the alpha male (named Caesar) without two legs (-R2-L3) tried to woo his fiancée (named Cornelia, subadult female) again. "Will you marry me?" Cornelia seemed not to be impressed at his courtship display and didn't let him into her bedroom. After all, it looked like she managed to persuade him to wait until her final moult. As you see, the male and the female of this species look very different in body colourations (sexual dimorphism). Note that the male of jumping spider was quite a gentleman; he never broke in her den nor raped her violently but just kept waiting for her patiently. (to be continued) The whole episodes (ep01 - 06) was recorded on the same afternoon of early-May 2009 in Japan.
Soundtrack (audioswapped): "I Don't Know Why (I Love You) [4hero Electric Soul Instrumental]" by The Brand New Heavies.

ep01: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY-uGjgnAgc
ep02: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGejR0qug8Q
ep03: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PlrR14QIgM
ep04: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iamxFLp_gSs
ep05: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7P3PDmOJnc
ep06: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blwyZ4N6euc

（つづき）ライバルとの喧嘩に勝った♂（-R2-L3：歩脚欠損）が求愛行動を始めたのでマクロレンズを装着して激写を続ける。亜成体♀が住居の入り口から顔を覗かせてい­る。残念ながら余り良いアングルではなくて、♀と対峙している♂の触肢や前脚の動きがよく見えない。ハエトリグモ科の中には♂が♀の視覚や聴覚に訴える華麗な求愛ダンスを­行う種も知られているが、ネコハエトリ♂の求愛はどうも地味なようです。大きく両腕（第一脚）を振り上げて必死に口説き落とそうとする♂。♀も諸手を挙げて応えるものの、­どうも許諾のサインではないようで、住居の外には出て来ないし決して♂を中に入れない。お預けを食った♂は諦めて下の隙間に退散し、♀が最終脱皮を完了するまで長期戦を覚­悟した様子。その♂を見下ろしている美しい♀の眼差しが印象的。まさに男と女のラブゲーム♪

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• jumping
• spider
• courtship
• display
• ネコハエトリ
• ハエトリグモ科
• 求愛
• クモ
• 蜘蛛

[sigma1920]

to my limited knowledge, sexual cannibalism has not been reported among japanese jumping spiders.

btw, check out my old vid titled "Golden Orb-web Spider - Sexual Cannibalism".

[KawaiiKemonomimi]

Never know. He could have escaped from a wasp or something. I saw this one thing on Animal Planet where a male of a web-weaving spider (can't remember sp.) would do a flip and put his abdomen right in harms way and let her eat him while he mates with her. 0.0

[sigma1920]

no, it is not anatomically possible.

only mature females have genital openings (epigynum).

[maculifrons]

Is it even possible for the female to mate before her final molt? I always thought insects could not breed until they reached the adult stage.

[sigma1920]

yeah, maybe.

but in contrast, the next alpha male (Brutus) boldly broke in there after the fight (see the episode 5).

and he did not lose any of his legs.

thx 4 watching.

[Diatomus]

lol of course he didn't break in, he'd lose another two legs