doug263's Favourites

UPDATE

With reference to this submission:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/155565115

This is the same male as in the observation cited above.
The male was identified by Prof Ansie Dippenaar as a Trichonephila species.
The observation confirms that a Trichonephila male was observed with his "genitals" inside the genitals of an Argiope female.

The following may now be applicable:

1. The male was "stealing" sperm as a food supplement for himself
2. The male was confused and just investigating if the female was a Trichonephila female
3. The male was indeed mating with the Argiope female (successful or not)
4. We all have the identifications of the spiders wrong
5. I have it all wrong and something else is going on here!

My question is whether inter-genus matings in spiders have been observed before.
Thank you if you can shed some light on my observation - appreciated.
@hrodulf
@razorspider
@geologyistheway