• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Study shows male spiders perform oral sex on females

Home> News

Published 14:33 20 Aug 2022 GMT+1

Study shows male spiders perform oral sex on females

The study's author said the spiders engage in a wide range of sexual behaviours

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Male spiders perform oral sex on female spiders while mating, a study has found. Anyone else find it quite strange that this study was even conducted in the first place?

The study, which has the wonderful title of Spider behaviours include oral sex encounters, centred on the sexual activities between Darwin’s bark spider, a species where the females are bigger and heavier than the males - something the study's author says often leads to extreme sexual behaviours in spiders, including 'sexual cannibalism, opportunistic mating, mate-binding, genital mutilation, plugging and emasculation', quite a list.

A couple of Darwin’s bark spiders getting acquainted.
YouTube/EZ Lab

Advert

Matjaž Gregorič and his team from the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts spent two weeks studying the species in Madagascar’s Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, before carrying out mating trials in a lab.

The researchers discovered that the male spiders will routinely salivate onto the female’s genitalia during sex. The females do not return the favour, if you were wondering.

Gregorič said: “Oral sexual contact seems to be an obligate sexual behaviour in this species as all males did it before, in between, and after copulations, even up to 100 times.” On a completely related note, I wonder if anyone has done a study on whether spiders get jaw ache?

And it wasn't just oral sex the spiders got up to either, the study stated: "Our field and laboratory study uncovers a rich sexual repertoire that predictably involves cannibalism, genital mutilation, male preference for teneral females and emasculation." Crikey.

Advert

Hassan Najmy / Alamy Stock Photo

The researchers did not know why the spiders had oral sex, but suggested it could be a way to signal the quality of the male or that enzymes in the saliva could ‘provide physiological advantage to the donor’s over rival’s sperm’. The author goes on to say that further testing would be required before a definitive answer could be given. 

Interestingly, they’re not the only species to do so, with the study noting: “The only other spiders known to exhibit oral sexual encounters are the size dimorphic widows (Latrodectus), where nothing is known about the phenomenon apart from its occurrence, i.e. reports of oral contact and salivation.”

While male fruit flies ‘lick female genitals as part of the courtship, which does not influence paternity, but influences the duration of copulation’, so there you go, these bugs are wild in more ways than one.

Advert

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected] 


Featured Image Credit: Arterra Picture Library / Allen Creative / Steve Allen / Alamy

Topics: Animals

Claire Reid
Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at UNILAD who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats.

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

7 mins ago
17 mins ago
24 mins ago
an hour ago
  • 7 mins ago

    Justin Bieber fans concerned after sharing cryptic post about 'silent treatment' amid 'savage' post from wife Hailey

    Justin Bieber's fans have been concerned about his marriage for some time

    Celebrity
  • 17 mins ago

    Before and after photos show key differences of Iran’s nuclear sites after US bombing as expert explains the impact

    Satellite images were caught over three nuclear sites after Donald Trump confirmed strikes against Iran

    News
  • 24 mins ago

    Donald Trump's warning to 'desperate' Obama not to strike Iran resurfaces after he does it himself

    Footage from 2011 has resurfaced of Trump accusing Obama of wanting to start a war with Iran

    News
  • an hour ago

    BBC News anchor praised by JK Rowling for rejecting what was on teleprompter while on-air

    The Harry Potter author responded to a clip of BBC News journalist Martine Croxall 'correcting' a teleprompter term

    News
  • New lawsuit accuses Diddy of 'effectively imprisoning' male entertainer and forcing him to perform sex acts
  • New study shows women who don't have enough sex are 'more likely to die early'
  • Actor Mark Rylance admits he regrets real oral sex scene in controversial movie
  • 'Ozempic penis' explained as study shows average penis size increasing by substantial amount