Love in a labyrinth

Here are two spiders locked in a close embrace but, don't worry, in this case the female isn't going to eat the male (there is cannibalism in the story but it comes later). These are labyrinth spiders (Agelena labyrithinca) and the two sexes live happily together for ever... well, for several weeks after mating.

The female makes the web, a sheet of gossamer stretched across a low bush or vegetation close to the ground. In the centre is a hole which, funnel-like, leads down into a long tube, the labyrinth. She sits in the mouth of the tube waiting for insect prey to land on or near her web whereupon she darts out, snatches up, and bites to kill or paralyze her victim with her venom. You can usually see the debris of her meals scattered around her lair in the form of wings and carapaces. The sheet web also catches rain and dew drops, as here.

Around now, in the middle of July, Mr Spider comes knocking. He taps on the web with his pedipalps in order to advertise himself as a potential mate. Mrs S., if she is in the mood to accept the suitor, remains quietly in her nest where the actual mating takes place. A few weeks later, she creates a large, white egg sac. The inner cocoon (the actual egg chamber with 50-130 eggs) is supported at the edges with multiple radiating bands of silk and the whole thing is suspended below the nest sometimes with additional camouflage.

The spiderlings hatch in the same year and overwinter in the nest, nourished from the egg yolk now stored in their abdomens. Mother remains with them until she dies and if the babies have not left the nest by then they will consume her body too. This form of cannibalism is called matriphagy (perhaps the ultimate maternal sacrifice).

If that is not exciting enough, you will be impressed to know that Agelena labyrinthica is European Spider of the Year 2011!
Dine out on that - but preferably not along with your mother.