With Spiders, To Know You Is To Spare You

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Casual dating can be dangerous.

A study of spiders shows female wolf spiders will eat strange-looking males that try to mate with them, but spare and even hook up with familiar-looking males.

The findings provide not just an interesting insight into spider behavior, but may help explain actions by "higher" animals, said arachnologist Eileen Hebets of Cornell University in New York.

"The female is using earlier experience that is going to affect her mate choice later," Hebets said in a telephone interview. "It is reasonable to expect that is a common thing in other animals."

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Comments

[lefty]

If you like that, you might like this:

The Red Queen, by Matt Ridley

I only skimmed it, but it`s funny (nonfiction). It answers the controversy surrounding evolution and human nature by getting in its face. It has a chapter about "why beautiful women marry rich men". talk about politically incorrect ;-)