Just a little too late for Valentine’s Day, researchers at Denmark’s University of Aaarhus recently completed a study of spider mating habits — and were suprised to learn that female nursery web spiders really, really dig the quiet guys….  In fact, they like the strong & silents so much that male nursery web spiders’ most successful courtship strategy is to play dead.  

Follow the jump to read more. Each of the male nursery web spiders started the night off right with a home cooked meal, delivered to the female directly from the male’s mouth (we’re assuming this is some sort of Lady & the Tramp-style tactic, where he’d show her the fresh kill larva in his mouth, she’d go in for a bite, and before she knows it, his spider-tongue is all down her throat and whatnot… eww).  

But after dinner, the novices start climbing all over the girls, while the male spiders who really know how to treat a lady do just what she wants — they lie down, close their eyes and shut the fuck up.  Some of the males even let the females rought them up and drag them around a little, which we feel might be taking it too far… 

But apparently, it’s worth it; the ladies also gave males who played dead much more time in the, um… sack.  So to speak. 

To be honest, there might be a lesson in here: sometimes it pays to be the mysterious silent type, even if you’re only pretending.  Always better than trying to look cool and coming off as the fool.

Scooter, Roger & limp dick here are all great examples –

should’ve been playing dead from the start.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 9:37 am and is filed under Nature, Sex, Animals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.