Reproduction and life cycle
Courtship
In male spiders the second pair of appendages (pedipalps) are each modified to form a complex structure for both holding sperm and serving as the copulatory organs. When the time for mating approaches, the male constructs a special web called the sperm web. The silk for it comes from two sources, the spinnerets at the end of the abdomen and the spigots of the epigastric silk glands located between the book lungs. A drop of fluid containing sperm is deposited onto the sperm web through an opening (gonopore) located on the underside of the abdomen. The male draws the sperm into his pedipalps in a process known as sperm induction. This may take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Sperm induction may occur before a male seeks a mate or after the mate has been located. If more than one mating occurs, the male must refill the pedipalps between copulations.
The way in which a male finds a female varies. Males generally wander more extensively than females. The wandering males of some species will often follow silk threads. Research has shown that some may recognize both the threads produced by a female of his own species and the female’s condition (i.e., whether she is mature and receptive). Pheromones incorporated into the silk by the female are involved in this behaviour. Other species, especially jumping spiders (family Salticidae), use visual senses to recognize mates.
Males in a few species locate a female and unceremoniously run to her and mate. In most species, however, elaborate courtship patterns have evolved, probably to protect the male from being mistaken for prey. The male of the orb weaver family (Araneidae) and some others court by rhythmically plucking the threads of a web. After the female approaches, he pats and strokes her before mating. When male wolf spiders or jumping spiders see a female, they wave the pedipalps, conveying a visual message characteristic of the species. An appropriate response from a female encourages the approach of the male. Some male wolf spiders tap dry leaves, perhaps to attract a female. Aggregations of tapping males produce sound that can be heard some distance away. A male crab spider quickly and expertly wraps his intended mate with silk. Although the female is able to escape, she does not do so until mating has been completed. After the male of the European nursery-web spider has located a suitable mate, he captures a fly, wraps it in silk, and presents it to the female; while the female is occupied with eating the fly, the male mates with her. If no fly is available, the male may wrap a pebble. Some male spiders use their specialized jaws or legs to hold and immobilize the jaws of the female during mating.
Mating
In most groups, after a male has successfully approached a female and mounted her, he inserts his left pedipalp into the left opening of her genital structure and the right pedipalp into the right opening. In some primitive spiders (e.g., haplogynes, mygalomorphs) and a few others, the male inserts both pedipalps simultaneously into the female’s genital slit.
The female genital structure, or epigynum, is a hardened plate on the underside of the abdomen in front of the gonopore. After the sperm are transferred into the epigynum, they move into receptacles (spermathecae) that connect to the oviducts. Eggs are fertilized as they pass through the oviducts and out through the gonopore.
The force that causes the injection of sperm from the pedipalp of the male into the receptacle of the female has not been established with certainty but may involve increased blood pressure expanding the soft vascular tissue (hematodocha) between the hard plates of pedipalps. This causes a bulbous structure containing a duct to twist and to hook into the epigynum of the female and inject the sperm as if they were being squeezed from a bulb syringe.
Mating may require only seconds in some species but hours in others. Some males recharge their pedipalps and mate again with the same female. After mating, the males of some species smear a secretion over the epigynum, called an epigynal plug, that prevents the female from mating a second time. Male spiders usually die soon after, or even during, the mating process. The female of one European orb weaver species bites into the abdomen of the male and holds on during mating. Although some females eat the male after mating, this practice is not common. The male of the black widow (genus Latrodectus), for example, usually dies days after mating, although occasionally he is so weak after mating that he is captured and eaten by the female. Male Nephilengys malabarensis spiders of Southeast Asia and the southwestern Pacific region are thought to escape sexual cannibalism through remote copulation, in which the male’s copulatory organ detaches during mating and remains in the female, enabling prolonged sperm transfer. Females of some species mate only once, whereas others mate several times with the same male or mate with several different males. The long-lived females of mygalomorph spiders must mate repeatedly because they shed their skins once or twice a year, including the lining of the spermathecae.
Eggs and egg sacs
Female spiders produce either one egg sac containing several to a thousand eggs or several egg sacs each with successively fewer eggs. Females of many species die after producing the last egg sac. Others provide care for the young for some period of time; these females live one or, at most, two years. Females of the mygalomorph spiders may live up to 25 years and those of the primitive haplogyne spiders up to 10 years.
The protective egg sac surrounding the eggs of most spiders is made of silk. Although a few spiders tie their eggs together with several strands of silk, most construct elaborate sacs of numerous layers of thick silk. Eggs, which often have the appearance of a drop of fluid, are deposited on a silk pad and then wrapped and covered so that the finished egg sac is spherical or disk-shaped. The females of many species place the egg sac on a stalk, attach it to a stone, or cover it with smooth silk before abandoning it. Other females guard their egg sacs or carry them either in their jaws or attached to the spinnerets. The European cobweb spider (Achaearanea saxatile) constructs a silken thimble-shaped structure and will move the egg sac into or out of this structure to regulate egg temperature. Female wolf spiders carry their egg sacs attached to the spinnerets and instinctively bite the egg sac to permit the young to emerge after a certain length of time has elapsed. If a female loses an egg sac, she will make searching movements and may pick up a pebble or a piece of paper and attach it to the spinnerets.
