Males sacrifice their legs to pacify aggressive females

The data show results on feeding and mating experiments with the golden-orb-web spider Trichonephila (formerly Nephila) fenestrata, in which males sacrifice a leg in response to female attacks during copulation. Three experiments were performed to test the adaptive value of this behaviour. The data reveal that providing females with a leg to feed on will reduce the likelyhood to be attacked and cannibilised for the male. Hence the leg sacrifice functions as a pacifier. Methods are described in the associated publication.