Really bummed.

[rknralf]

Well,
The male Pterinochilus murinus I got from another keeper made a really large sperm web, so I decided to let him have one more go before retiring him completely.
Unfortunatly, my large female had other ideas and I came in to find she had him in her jaws and had already taken him into her hide. He wasn't moving, so I assume he was already gone.
Man am I bummed! I really got to appreciate him over the last month. He had already mated successfully with her a couple times, but I wanted to give him one last go.
I feel really bad. I'm really depressed.
Ralph

 

[MrT]

That is bummer Ralph. But we should be so lucky to die in the arms of our lover. Better to go out quick, than to hang around getting weak and fading away slow.

Ernie

 

[jwb121377]

Sorry to hear the bad news. Well maybe your female will still drop you an egg sack and all wont have been lost!

 

[The_Phantom]

OHH, Im really sorry to hear about your loss. MAle tarantulas are sweet.

 

[MrDeranged]

And the bright side is..... It's been alot of breeders experience that if the female eats the male, you're almost practically guaranteed an eggsac. Keep on the look out

Scott

 

[JacenBeers]

I wouldnt be so hard on yourself. I think that that is often how it occurs in nature. I dont think the spider suffered much and atleast the female got some nourishment. Cleaning up any remnants will be the sad part I imagine.,

 

[skinheaddave]

Okay. I had a few thoughts. Please don't laugh too hard -- it is heading towards 5am, I just got back from a hard night at the bar and I don't think my brain is really dealing well with things right now.

However, it has been established that certain species have males that give themselves over to canabalism so that their young can receive the nourisment via the mother. At least some mantids are an example of this -- the male won't even try to escape.

Male Ts do try to escape, and yet they are in a similar predicament -- they will soon die. Do you suppose that being canabalized is a self-sacrifical act? Do you think that as they approach the end of their adult lives they are too weak to escape? Or is it all just luck?

Cheers,
Dave

 

[jwb121377]

hmmmm Dave I never thought about that way before. It may well be that it's five AM but that makes sense. What else would be left for the male? Wander for another female? Maybe it was ment to be that way by nature. How would you ever know for sure though? I've often wondered why the male is aways eaten and never the female? I guess the drive to reproduce won't allow the male to eat the female?

 

[Immortal_sin]

Originally posted by mrderanged
And the bright side is..... It's been alot of breeders experience that if the female eats the male, you're almost practically guaranteed an eggsac. Keep on the look out

Scott

Ralph,
I had typed up a huge reply to you..and then my computer crashed
However, Scott put it more succintly than I did....and this was esentially the gist of my reply....
so DITTO!
Holley

 

[Wade]

Dave-

It's an interesting idea, but I suspect it's more of a do-or-die senario...he's going to try to pass on his genes no matter what. Towards the end, he's slower and probably not as appealing to the female (at least not as a mate ). Even in mantids, this is probably the case. Frederick Prete in The Praying Mantids (good book, by the way) spends a lot of time de-bunking the myth that male mantids deliberately sacrifice themselves for the next generation. Generally, they would rather get away, but the drive to reproduce forces them to put themselves in peril (it's thought by some that many male mantids have eveolved to be so much smaller than the females so as to be out of reach of the female during copulation!). Although cannibalism during mating happens from time to time in the wild, it's probably the exception rather than the rule. The belief stems from mantids in captivity, where the female may be underfed, and the two are trapped together in a cage. This is almost the exact same way the myth of the widow spiders got started (there is evidence, however, the male brown widow may actually deliberately sacrafice himself). With mantids and spiders, basically you have predatory, solitary, organisms with very, very simple brains. In order to successfully mate, they must somehow temporarily supress the feeding urge. For male tarantulas, it is probably done one the chemical level. He's picking up her "scent" (I think phermones, etc. in her silk). For her, it's the courtship behaviour of the male (drumming). Failure on his part to convince her to mate often means death. An older, less vigerous male may not be up to the task, but he'll try anyway. After mating, the feeding urge returnes (sometimes stronger than it was) and the male needs to get out. Again, if he's old or slow...

Jeremy-

Actually, sometimes the female does get nailed! It's rare, though, and probably happens more in captivity than in the wild. We can only speculate as to the reasons, but if a male is put in with a female who isn't sexually mature, she may not be putting out the right phermones, so she's just annother big bug to eat (or be eaten by). Also, if the female happens to molt while the male is in there (I had this happen once) she is vunerable and he may eat her. Remember, small brains responding to chemical clues. Suddnely, she's not the attractive lady she was, but just a big hunk of defensless meat.

Anyway, just a few thoughts.

Wade