Originally published at: This animal catapults itself away right after having sex (and it isn't a human) | Boing Boing
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Researchers captured high-resolution video of the spider’s launch, clocked between 32 centimeters to 88 centimeters per second. …The movement was “so fast that common cameras could not record the details,”
units ‘88 centimeters/second’ kph
3.168 (kilometers per hour)
units ‘88 centimeters/second’ mph
1.969 (miles per hour)
that’s “so fast that common cameras could not record …”? hmh [shrug]. (“So much for ‘bye babe! gotta big meeting tomorrow’ …phone ya! [zoom]”)
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In an amazing bit of motor control, spiders have normal leg flexor muscles, but lost their leg extensor muscles and instead use hydraulics to extend. The propulsion for this jump is likely to be mostly due to flexor muscles rather than hydraulic pressure though.
eta: unlike normal spider jumps propelled by the hindlegs, this escape jump is apparently driven by hydraulic extension of the front legs. The cartoon isn’t apt, but I’ll leave it anyway
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This parenthetical note from the article seems remarkable considering that male spiders that didn’t jump away immediately after sex were eaten by the female 100% of the time. That is living dangerously
a male can mate up to six times with the same female, repeating the ‘bounce off, climb up with safety line, mate, and bounce off again’ cycle
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Hey, I resemble that remark!
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Came here to say this but found myself pre-pedanted.
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dad always said size don’t matter “if ya got a cute way of gettin’ on and off”
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