Wolf Spider Mating Choices

Well, you know what they say. A woman will marry the man who reminds her of her father, and a man will marry a woman who reminds him of his mother.

Well we're hardly the only animals to choose mates based on our early social interactions. In fact, though worlds away from us as a species, some female wolf spiders also make their mating choices on the basis of familiarity.

Male wolf spiders run the gamut in physical appearance. They can vary in color and in hairiness. What's interesting is that there isn't a general preferred look among females, but instead, females prefer males who look like males they encountered when they were young and sexually immature.

In fact, some female wolf spiders prefer familiarity to the extent that they will often eat a male suitor that doesn't fit that profile. The wider her range of familiarity with different looking males, the more discriminating a female is, and thus more likely to devour a male who looks unfamiliar.

The influence social experience has on the female wolf spider's mating choice is almost unheard of among invertebrates. This spider challenges what we thought we knew about arachnids and invertebrates.

人們常說(shuō)，女人會(huì)嫁給讓她想起自己父親的男人，男人會(huì)娶讓他想起自己母親的女人。

當(dāng)然，人類(lèi)并不是唯一以早期的社會(huì)交往為基礎(chǔ)選擇配偶的物種。實(shí)際上，同看整個(gè)世界，除了人類(lèi)這一物種外，雌性狼蛛也是以熟悉程度來(lái)選擇配偶的。

從外形上看，雄性狼蛛形形色色。他們的顏色及絨毛都各不相同。有趣的是，雌性狼蛛在選擇配偶時(shí)根本沒(méi)有什么偏愛(ài)的外形特征。相比而言，雌性狼蛛更喜歡選擇那些看起來(lái)像是她們?cè)谀贻p的時(shí)候或尚未性成熟時(shí)所遇到過(guò)的雄性狼蛛作為配偶。

事實(shí)上，雌性狼蛛偏愛(ài)“熟人”已經(jīng)到了這樣的地步——她們通常會(huì)將那些陌生的“追求者”吃掉。雌性狼蛛所碰到的外形不同的雄性狼蛛越多，她的辨識(shí)能力越強(qiáng)，她吃掉外形陌生的雄性狼蛛的幾率就越高。

在無(wú)脊椎動(dòng)物這一群體中，社會(huì)經(jīng)驗(yàn)對(duì)雌性狼蛛擇偶的影響可說(shuō)是聞所未聞的。狼蛛的這一特性也挑戰(zhàn)了人類(lèi)對(duì)蛛形綱動(dòng)物及無(wú)脊椎動(dòng)物的認(rèn)知。