tumblr is banning nsfw pics and being dumb about it. quick, post palpal bulbs and epigynes in protest
Time to talk about spider mating then! Let’s make this educational so they feel bad if it gets flagged.
Look at the massive palps on this boy! Nice long sperm duct, too.
Male reproductive organs are at the rear of the abdomen, which makes delivering sperm into the female’s receptacle a little difficult. They instead deposit sperm onto a small web (sperm web) and transfer it into their palps.
And this scandalous lady spreading all eight of her legs for us…
If a male has successfully wooed a lady spider, he will use his pedipalps to deposit his sperm into the female’s epigyne.
Let’s not forget that spiders have threesomes too!
Spider sex is always a competition to see which male can mate as many females as he can before anyone else can. Check out this other post of mine about a spider that literally leaves his palps in the female’s epigyne to prevent other males from mating with her!
One more racy image of two spiders getting it on!
(This last image is actually a 3D model made by designer Julia Stoess, and I greatly recommend checking out more of her work. It’s truly amazing.)
~E. Caine
