Courtship with a Running Tackle

[jsloan]

Wow, when this male decided it was time to mate he really went berserk! During the past week I found two separate Clubiona sp. in my basement, one male and one female. The other night I put them together in a large pickle jar. They both started walking around the jar, basically doing circles around it. Occasionally they passed within about a mm of each other, but neither seemed aware of the other. Then, they touched briefly and the female took off for the top of the jar. The male pursued and, lightning quick, tackled her. She lost her grip and the two of them went tumbling down to the bottom in a heap, winding up on their backs with the male holding on. At first I wasn't sure the male hadn't attacked her, because he jumped on her like she was a fly. A couple of minutes later the female righted herself with the male still clinging to her back. He gradually maneuvered and repositioned himself prior to mating. The female stayed pretty quiet through this. Anyway, it was interesting to watch. So much for careful courtship by the male!

I need to examine the palps of the male, but I think these spiders are probably Clubiona canadensis, which I've found before around here.

I took a few pictures (quality is not good, as I had to shoot from the mouth of the jar and couldn't get the camera close enough for better shots - that's what I get for using such a big jar!):

Right after the fall (male on the bottom):


The female manages to stand upright:


Male is repositioning himself:


Male crawls under her:


Later, the more "normal" mating position:


Mating lasted about 30 minutes.

 

[VickyChaiTea]

Haha! He was just very enthusiastic. Also, did you release them after or are you going to keep the offspring?

 

[jsloan]

Also, did you release them after or are you going to keep the offspring?

No, in order to identify the species I have to put them in alcohol and look at the palp or epigyne under a microscope, so they're dead now (I anesthetized them for some habitus pictures first, so each spider was "out of it" when I put it in the alcohol). The female was getting old, anyway. I'd given her water but she refused a fly I put in with her, so I decided to see if they'd mate before I preserved them both.

 

[jsloan]

Here are some habitus pics I took later:

Female:

Male:

 

[cacoseraph]

Miturgidae and Clubionidae males look so *evil* to me =P


the tiny mygs Megahexura fulva mate real rough styles, too. so much so it's mentioned in lit