Lady Spiders Love a Hairy Kiss

Some people will be the first to admit that they enjoy the tickly kiss of a well mustached man. However, you might be surprised to learn that some spiders feel the same way.

A new study recently published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology details how spiders of the Leucauge mariana species - orb-weaves who call the forests of Costa Rica their home - embrase mouthparts when mating.

This isn't terribly unusual for spiders, but what makes this specific spider "kiss" special is the fact that the males have evolved to boast thick hairs on their mouthparts to help stimulate their mate during copulation.

Spiders sometimes can simply lose interest in the middle of mating, wandering away even after attacking their mate. However, for the Leucauge mariana, males ensure this doesn't happen by keeping their women interested in their tickly embrace.

This may sound a little far-fetched, but researcher Anita Aisenberg from the Clemente Estable Biological Research Institute in Montevideo, Uruguay, and her colleagues ran several tests to ensure that they were indeed onto something.

In one test they removed the stimulating hairs on a male's mouthparts before he was left to mate with a female. In another experiment, the researchers removed the setae from female mouthparts as well as the nerve-sensitive regions that are touched by male bristles.

In both cases, the resulting reduced stimulation left females unsatisfied, and they would often stop in the middle of copulation to go find another male.

Now here's where things get a little strange. Traditionally, after successfully copulation, some spiders (including L. mariana) create what is called a "genital plug," which essentially prevents other males from having sex with a claimed female spider.

However, the researchers found that an unsatisfied female will not help form this plug, making it easier for other males to mate with her in the future.

This just goes to show, even in the strange world of arachnids, keeping women happy is paramount.