Sixteen Legs…
She watches apathetically as he begins his approach. It’s almost comical, how nervous he is.
But he has every right to be hesitant – it’s been a while since her last meal, and there’s not a lot of distance between lover and lunch in the arachnid world.
What will she make of him? She’s not sure yet. She’ll decide when he gets here. Perhaps both.
After all, males are just objects, she reminds herself. They exist only to provide for her, and it would be a good idea to give her potential spiderlings the best start in life with an early boost of protein…
He inches ever closer, his eight eyes carefully analysing every miniscule movement, looking for any indication of her intentions. He knows that he should turn back, that every additional step could be his last. But he feels a mild pressure beginning to build in his pedipalps, and he’s carried forward by that most ancient evolutionary urge.
In his species, the palps are long enough that you could easily mistake them for vestigial legs, dangling gracelessly on either side of his bright red chelicerae. Reproductive fluids rush to the palpal bulbs at the tips, which, if placed in exactly the right spot on her abdomen, will ensure the continuation of their species for yet another generation. He’s just millimetres away now, and still she sits motionless.
He reaches out and ever-so-delicately touches her for the first time, then pauses, and waits for the cold, sharp sensation of her fangs piercing his exoskeleton.
But it never comes. She is accepting him… for now.
Hurry up and get it over with, she thinks to herself. But if she’s honest, she’s enjoying his helplessness. She’s enjoying the power.
He completes his task. Undoubtedly, he will live on through the genes he has just transferred, but whether he will live on as an individual remains to be seen. For some reason, he never thinks this far ahead.
She turns and looks directly at him for the first time, the glint in her eye matching the glint from her fangs. His other evolutionary impulse finally kicks in now, and it’s urgently conveying just a single word to him…
Run.
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Mating Bromeliad Spiders (Cupiennius sp.), Manu Biological Station, Peru