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Male nursery web spiders lure mates with silk-wrapped offerings, only some of which contain tasty treats. Cynthia Graber reports
雄性保育蛛用絲裹的物品引誘雌性，只有部分這類物品里面有美味的食物。辛西婭·格雷伯報導。
Male nursery web spiders often woo potential lady-friends with gifts wrapped in silk. Mating may ensue, during which a female unspools the present, expecting to find a tasty treat. But the males can be unscrupulous. Some offerings contain inedible plant seeds or empty insect exoskeletons.
雄性保育蛛通常用絲裹的禮物像潛在的對象求愛。交配可能隨之而來，在此期間雌性解開禮物外層裹著的絲，期待找到美味的食物。但雄蜘蛛可就有點不道德了，一些禮物里面是不能吃的植物種子或者昆蟲空骨頭。
How do males get away with such egregious behavior?
雄蜘蛛是如何用這些惡劣的行為僥幸成功的？
Researchers provided males with potential gifts—either a fly or an inedible item, such as a bit of cotton. Other males had to give it a shot with no gift at all.
研究人員給部分雄蜘蛛一只蒼蠅或者一些不能吃的東西，比如一點棉花，做為可能的禮物。而另一部分雄蜘蛛，則試試看完全沒有禮物會怎樣。
The empty-handed males were mostly unsuccessful at mating. Whereas those with a gift could get the girl. But if the gift was worthless, the females quickly realized the deceit and pushed the copulating males off. Which gave the males less time to transfer sperm.
兩手空空的雄蜘蛛幾乎都未成功交配。而那些有禮物的能夠得到雌性的青睞。但如果禮物毫無價值，雌蜘蛛會很快發現這個騙局并把雄蜘蛛從身體推開，這使得雄蜘蛛沒有足夠時間完成交配。
