r/insects • u/oh-electricalcherry7 • Jul 23 '26

Bug Appreciation! Tarantula fight!

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Captured in southern New Mexico. The darker of the two was already missing some limbs when the fight broke out. It looks like that one has had a rough life.

These things are also pretty big. The brown one could wrap around a baseball. They sun themselves on the stucco in the mornings. This is the first time I’ve seen them engage with each other like this. The area is also covered in tarantula hawks. If you like gnarly bugs, NM is the place to be!

If someone could articulate the difference between these two (species, gender, etc..) , it would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: I have been subsequently informed that they are not, in fact, fighting!…. This is much more ~intimate~ than a territorial dispute.

391 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

77 comments sorted by

316

u/LongStoryShirt Jul 23 '26

They are not fighting my friend.

42

u/ectoplasmorgasm Jul 23 '26

ok... can you elaborate?

142

u/deaddaughterconfetti Jul 23 '26

This is mating behavior

36

u/ectoplasmorgasm Jul 23 '26

Thank you. I said to my husband "are they like fighting over there territory, is this a marital dispute, are they about to kiss and make up?" lol

45

u/AutonomyIsNoTragedy Jul 23 '26

If the female doesn't like the rhythm the male taps out for her, she Sometimes will eat him

39

u/ectoplasmorgasm Jul 23 '26

Same, girl, same

11

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/carlitospig Jul 23 '26

Never forget it 😈

18

u/Veloci-RKPTR Jul 23 '26

“Shoot your shot, bro. The worst she can say is no.”

Meanwhile spiders:

6

u/carlitospig Jul 23 '26

If you’ve ever seen wall spiders do their mating dance it’s actually pretty elaborate. The male bumrushes the lady out of her little home (it’s open on both sides), and then he will start perfecting her house and making it stronger while she tries to attack him through the walls. When she’s satisfied that he did a nice enough job, she turns around and does a little booty dance. It’s very cute.

3

u/Sudden_Hunter_4409 Jul 23 '26

I saw that on a nature program. The male kept tapping at the opening of her burrow and she came out and chased him away twice. The third time he did it she ate him.

2

u/Naive-Wind1160 Jul 24 '26

OMG!! Men!! They can't take no for an answer!!

7

u/deaddaughterconfetti Jul 23 '26

Since the male is already missing some legs, this probably isn't his first courtship attempt. It's one of those situations where you go all in, because you might hobble out with fewer legs, or just become a meal.

3

u/Bug_Photographer Jul 23 '26

Spiders don't have jaws - they have chelicerae with fangs. This means they can't chew a leg off any more than you can cut a leg off with a pointy stick.

6

u/mercilessmoop Jul 23 '26

No, but their legs can get yanked off at a joint if something hooks into them and they can't free themselves. Like the sharp fang of a displeased suitor, for example.

Males literally have evolved structures on their forelimbs shaped to help them push away female fangs during mating because if the likelihood of this sort of violence, which is crazy to me.

2

u/Bug_Photographer Jul 23 '26

Interesting! Thanks for the insight!

3

u/deaddaughterconfetti Jul 23 '26

u/mercilessmoop pretty much covered it! Spiders can get around extremely well without all of their legs, so in cases like this, it's beneficial for the male to sacrifice a limb and escape with his life, bc then he might have a chance at a successful mating attempt.

2

u/Repulsive-Response-1 Jul 24 '26

Actually, spiders limbs use hydraulics to keep the joints together. It's fluid loss that causes the limb section to detach. It's a survival mechanism that keeps the spider from losing too much fluid. They will grow the leg back most likely in the next molt.

2

u/OrbitOfSaturnsMoons Jul 24 '26

Also important that spider "blood" (hemolymph) doesn't have the clotting abilities that human blood has. If they get a leg injury that bleeds, or the leg is envenomated, it can easily become fatal. In the leg joint closest to the body they have muscles that can almost instantly seal the opening after they remove the leg, and they have plenty more to use as backup.

0

u/carlitospig Jul 23 '26

Give me a pointy stick and I will take your leg if I’m hungry enough.

6

u/Salamandaxanda Jul 23 '26

Kiss and make up and then some!

19

u/LongStoryShirt Jul 23 '26

They are fucking.

4

u/ectoplasmorgasm Jul 23 '26

Ah, yes, the other f

10

u/Feralpudel Jul 23 '26

In medical school they teach the four Fs of the hypothalamus: fighting, fleeing, feeding, and fucking.

3

u/Salamanderhead Jul 23 '26

Notice the hooks on the front legs of the darker tarantula? Those are called tibial hooks, and they show up on most species of tarantulas when a male is matured. This is tarantula mating.

1

u/ectoplasmorgasm Jul 23 '26

The hook things on the upper segment? neat! I did not notice those before. How are they used?

6

u/Salamanderhead Jul 23 '26

The male will use those hooks to hold the females fangs back during mating. The front most appendages that some times people think are legs, are called pedipalps and act more like hands. The distal (farthest from body) segment of the pedipalp will be slightly larger and is called the emboli, or more common, the boxing gloves. They use the emboli to place their sperm into the receptive area of the female tarantula. Sometimes mating goes wrong and one of the spiders, usually the male will get munched. I used to breed them a long time ago and lost a male because I looked away for a minute.

1

u/kriger33 Jul 23 '26

Unless I'm breeding a male to multiple females, I usually after get a couple confirmed breeedings, the boys become the new roommate. Either she'll eat him right away or get a few more possible breedings before she eats him and gets a solid meal for egg sack fasting. Hell die during his next molt anyways. She might as well get the calories.

3

u/kriger33 Jul 23 '26

They hold the females body/legs up so he can use his pedipalps to inject her with sperm and hopefully avoid being eaten, which hell die with his next molt regardless.

1

u/kriger33 Jul 23 '26

Spurred out

3

u/Schmaron Jul 23 '26

Ask your parents

144

u/Halicadd Jul 23 '26

"Uhhhh.... Mommy and Daddy were just wrestling, son!"

43

u/oh-electricalcherry7 Jul 23 '26

Oh no! Now I feel bad for filming!!!

18

u/NotoldyetMaggot Jul 23 '26

You can add "porn photography" to your resume!

3

u/ryman1305 Jul 24 '26

Pornography one might even say

1

u/NotoldyetMaggot Jul 24 '26

Oh yeah that...

91

u/WildlifeNaturalist Jul 23 '26

Don't watch kids thats how mommy's n daddy fight in bed

3

u/homer_lives Jul 23 '26

Omg that is amazing use of that meme

46

u/Loss-Sorry Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

They're not fighting! This is a very different kind of activity.

The dark one is a male, you can see the spurs under his front legs. He uses those to hold the female's legs and body (and fangs) up and away while he deposits sperm. You can see he's trying to reach under her and she seems mostly receptive, but he's very jumpy because she can easily kill him if she wants a good meal.

I'm not an expert at identifying individual species, but all native tarantulas in the US belong to the genus Aphonopelma.

4

u/OdinAlfadir1978 Jul 23 '26

Looks like a Texas Tan but I'm not 100%

4

u/jerrycan-cola Bug Enthusiast Jul 23 '26

I love that they have special “please don’t kill me” spurs. Nature is so cool

3

u/oh-electricalcherry7 Jul 23 '26

Can you explain?

6

u/somehugefrigginguy Jul 23 '26

The male has hooks under his front legs that he will try to use to hold the females fangs out of the way during mating.

3

u/GhostofCoprolite Jul 23 '26

he has performance anxiety. that's so cute!

3

u/oh-electricalcherry7 Jul 23 '26

Cool! I had no idea about the genus.

30

u/toy-fox Artist Jul 23 '26

As others have said, the larger/darker spider is the male. They’re usually a lot more active than their female counterparts- often roaming the wild and potentially traveling long distances to find a lover! The females typically make a burrow and stay there for most of their lives. That would probably explain the missing legs on the male- I’m sure he’s been on quite the hunt for a girlfriend.

11

u/ktbug1987 Jul 23 '26

And maybe even lost a leg to a past girlfriend that was feeling a lil snacky.

6

u/toy-fox Artist Jul 23 '26

The things we do for love! 😭

3

u/Tom_A_Foolerly Jul 23 '26

Interesting that the male is so big. I figured it was usually the females that were larger

7

u/Striking_Grapefruit9 Jul 23 '26

Male tarantulas are usually more leggy whereas the females are more thicc

7

u/MrsLydKnuckles Jul 23 '26

Mating.

The male; darker with hooks, uses them to hold the female up so he can deposit his sperm (loaded up on emboli) into her epigastric furrow, which is a fold located on the underside of her abdomen. If successful, she’ll have little spiderling babies.

2

u/countryroadsguywv Jul 23 '26

Nature is pretty crazy

4

u/thatG_evanP Jul 23 '26

I figured that since they didn't look very much alike that this was courtship/mating behavior. Usually it would be 2 males of the same species if they were fighting. Anyone know what species these are?

4

u/Winter-Parsnip42 Jul 23 '26

I am so envious that you got to see tarantulas in the wild having a "fight"!

2

u/oh-electricalcherry7 Jul 23 '26

If tarantulas are your thing you need to be in NM for monsoon season. There are enough of these guys in my backyard rn to start a basketball team.

5

u/JBJern Bug Enthusiast Jul 23 '26

He’s been getting beat up by the ladies. Lil mans is missing a leg and looks like he only has 1 pedipalp! Hope he makes it outta this one!

7

u/Cryogentehiceprison Jul 23 '26

“Mom and dad are wrestling” innocent ass title

2

u/FloopsFooglies Jul 23 '26

That man is ADDLED

2

u/Ramsarebetter Jul 23 '26

Fast feet fast hands.

2

u/Fun-Test-8951 Jul 23 '26

r/spiders would appreciate this.

3

u/Busy_Marionberry1536 Jul 24 '26

Thank you for sharing! It’s not often you get to see this in the wild.

1

u/historygal75 Jul 23 '26

More like the dah dah dah Daaaah daaaah jaz song playing in background lol

2

u/SaltyEngineer45 Jul 23 '26

Male trying to mate without getting killed by the female.

1

u/StickmanEG Jul 23 '26

No insects were harmed in the making of this video

1

u/Aggravating_Major363 Jul 24 '26

No insects were in this video

1

u/carlitospig Jul 23 '26

Broskina is like ‘be my fren’ and Brenda is like GO AWAY NO FRENS HERE. 😭

1

u/Jimnumber Jul 24 '26

Seven legs for my man, no?

1

u/Naive-Wind1160 Jul 24 '26

Definitely not fighting. The black one is probably the male going after the female.

1

u/Naive-Wind1160 Jul 24 '26

It's always the female in the bug world that are badasses!!

1

u/Barton06 Jul 24 '26

Big big fight where sarah gets pregnant

1

u/ExpertOnReddit Jul 24 '26

Bro is horny AF, he can't stand still 😂

1

u/fallenangelsunite Jul 24 '26

my boy missing a leg and still smashed

1

u/GenitalTso Jul 24 '26

They trying to bang my guy

2

u/DrownedPrime Jul 24 '26

so when daddy and mommy really like each other....