meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Science Quickly

Male Black Widows Strive for Mate's Monogamy

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2015

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

During courtship, male black widow spiders snip and bundle up the female's web in their own silk, which discourages other suitors from stopping by. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcp.co.j.jok-u-t-co.j-j-p.

0:28.1

When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.7

This is Scientific American's 60-second science.

0:37.0

I'm Christopher in Taliatta. Got a minute?

0:39.9

Island View Beach in British Columbia has all the makings of a perfect summer outing.

0:44.7

Great views, seclusion, sand dunes, and driftwood.

0:48.3

There's just one minor detail.

0:50.9

That driftwood, it hosts two to three black widow spider webs per square a meter.

0:56.1

To some people, a beach full of black widows does sound like a nightmare, but to me it's awesome

1:04.3

and it's not scary at all. Catherine Scott studies spider behavior at Simon Fraser University

1:09.6

in British Columbia. And in case you're

1:12.1

wondering, I've never been bitten by a black widow and I'm not at all concerned about being

1:16.5

bitten by a black widow. Scott's research brought her to Island View Beach to study the mating

1:20.9

habits of black widow spiders. The basics are this. So if you're a male black widow, your goal in

1:26.8

life is to find a female and mate with

1:30.2

her and father as many of her offspring as possible. Achieving that goal includes some architectural

1:35.1

alterations by the males during their several hours of courtship. They snip the females' web

1:40.2

to pieces and then bundle the tattered web in their own silk. Scott and her colleagues found

1:46.2

that webs treated this way don't attract other prowling males, the same way an intact web does,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Scientific American, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Scientific American and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.