It sounds like male spiders are a bit kinky, but it might just be a reproductive strategy. Many female spiders eat male spiders after mating. Binding the female might be the male’s strategy to avoid this fate.
Male spiders usually need to convince female spiders to mate with them.
However, some male spiders will mate with involuntary females. Male spiders in the species Thanatus fabricii have venom sacs , which they use to subdue female spiders. Once a female is immobilized, a male spider wraps the female in silk to further immobilize her before mating.
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The male spider’s venom isn’t for hunting.
Similar species with less venom, Philodromus spiders, are better hunters than the T. fabriccii spiders. The big difference between Philodromus spiders and T. fabriccii spiders are that the Philodromus spiders, who have less venom, court females when mating.
The male spiders bite the female’s legs to insert the venom.
Once the females are unable to move, they are wrapped in silk. After mating, the males leave the females immobilized. Once the venom wears off, the females will unbind themselves. In comparison, other spiders will spend hours courting females before mating.
Mating is not without risks.
The female spiders are larger than the males. About 11% of the time, they will eat the males before they are immobilized. Researchers found that the larger the female was, the more times the male spider bit them. So, it looks like the females are not so helpless after all!
h/t: Newsweek
