Talk:Spider cannibalism

Evolutionary benefit?

Both males and females of the African jumping spider species can cannibalise their partner after copulation. "That equal opportunity behaviour extends to two-way cannibalism as well, with males consuming their loved ones only slightly more often as the reverse" (full article)

My question is - what evolutionary benefit does the male get by eating the female with whom he has just mated? Isn't he reducing his chances of passing on his genes?

Ajgaon 19:18, 25 September 2007 (UTC)ajgaon[reply]

Not every action of every animal serves an evolutionary purpose. But if his options are between starving to death or eating his mate and having to wait for the next female, eating the first mate is certainly more likely to allow him to pass on his genes. 65.131.48.150 (talk) 19:50, 28 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Spider cannibalism/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

* clean up

maybe find other examples -> new sections. --Sarefo 16:24, 2 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Last edited at 16:24, 2 August 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 06:42, 30 April 2016 (UTC)