A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Mimetidae, Gelanor sp.
When mating, male spiders use their pedipalps (the second pair of appendages of the prosoma in arthropods of the subphylum Chelicerata, lateral to the chelicerae and anterior to the first pair of walking legs - Wikipedia) to transfer sperm from its sexual organ to the female's seminal receptacles. Always a complicated matter, it is even worst if your partner is specialized in preying... other spiders, like pirate spiders (Mimetidae)! In order to increase its chances of surviving, some male mimetids in the genus Gelanor, found in South America, have enormously long appendages which they use to inseminate females.
No Comments