Female sexual cannibalism and male reproductive strategies

Sexual cannibalism — the consumption of one mating partner by the other before, during, or after copulation — is documented across various invertebrate groups, particularly arachnids, some insects such as mantids, dipterans, and orthopterans, as well as in some vertebrates. Typically, adult females consume adult males, though cases of males consuming females also occur. Female sexual cannibalism has driven the evolution of numerous male counter-adaptations.

Among invertebrates, spiders stand out for the prevalence and extensive study of sexual cannibalism, but a unified explanation for its evolution in spiders remains elusive. In this review, we recapitulate the hypotheses proposed to explain female-initiated sexual cannibalism in spiderand and highlight various male strategies to mitigate it.

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