Researchers have determined that male western black widow spiders tend to avoid mating with females who are hungry in order to avoid being eaten beforehand.

Male western black widow spiders tend to avoid mating with hungry females who can be cannibalistic.

Scientists knew male spiders preferred well-fed females to reproduce with, but were not sure why.

To examine this behavior, a team led by researchers from the University of Toronto Scarborough tested the western black widow and the Australian redback spiders. Both types have similar reproductive behaviors.

One difference noted was female black widows are willing to eat males before mating, whereas the female redbacks will wait to devour their partner afterwards.

In the experiment, male spiders from both species were exposed to the pheromones extracted from female counterparts who had not been fed in four weeks.

While the redback males proceeded to mate with their hungry females, the black widow males either had a reduced respo