You probably knew that honeybees typically die after they sting you, as their barbed stingers are torn from their abdomens. But did you know that after mating, some male spiders break off the ends of their palps—the organ used to transfer sperm—inside the female?
That’s right. And afterward, this mutilated “eunuch” will stick around the female’s web and prevent her from shacking up with his competitors
studied the evolution of the genitals of males and females in 32 species of Nephilid spiders, including the golden orb weaver (pictured)
The result, Coddington says, is that male and female genitalia have grown increasingly complex over evolutionary time. Males gradually developed hooks, ridges, and twists on their palps as female genitalia transformed from a slit with a straight, short duct to a series of elaborate chambers making them more difficult to “plug".
clipped from: www.scientificamerican.com 