◎胡立宗

Female spiders who eat would-be suitors produce more babies, and those babies are stronger and bigger, than spiders who stick to more mundane fare, researchers reported on Tuesday.

比起較愛「正常飲食」的蜘蛛，會吃掉有意追求者的母蜘蛛會生下更多寶寶，這些寶寶也會更強壯、體形更大，研究者週二表示。

And the merciless mother spiders waited until they had mated with another -- ensuring they would hatch spiderlings -- before consuming their new beaux, the researchers found.

這些心狠手辣的母蜘蛛會等到與其他蜘蛛交配過、確保能生下小蜘蛛後，才會開始吃掉新的追求者，研究者發現。

They said their study is the first "natural" experiment to prove correct the old folklore about spiders, and said it also shows why such behaviour might be beneficial.

他們說他們的研究是第一個能證明蜘蛛古老傳說的「自然」實驗，並表示研究同樣顯示為什麼這樣的行為會產生好的影響。

"Now we know that, at least in one species, sexual cannibalism benefiting females occurs in nature," Dr. Jordi Moya-Larano of the Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas in Spain, who led the study, said in a statement.

「現在我們知道，至少對一種物種來說，會讓雌性得益的異性（同類）互食會在自然環境中發生」，西班牙荒地研究中心、負責這項研究的霍爾迪．摩亞—拉洛諾博士在聲明中表示。

The Mediterranean tarantulas in the study did not eat their mates, but instead ate males before courtship -- and usually after the females had already mated with another male, the researchers found.

研究目標的地中海毛蜘蛛並不會吃掉牠們的（性）伴侶，通常只在雌蜘蛛已經和其他雄蜘蛛交配後，又有（新的）雄蜘蛛準備求偶時，才會吃掉牠們，研究者發現。

新聞辭典

pay off：片語，有益…（人、物）。Working hard did pay off.（努力工作真的有回報）

beau：名詞，男朋友、花花公子。語源為法文，複數為beaux。

sexual cannibalism：生物學用語，通常翻譯為「性食」或「性食同類」，指昆蟲及部分生物間，雌性會在交配後吃掉雄性。

自由時報-980118

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