Female Australian redback spiders, Latrodectus hasselti, are about 50 times larger than males and often eat the
Question:
Female Australian redback spiders, Latrodectus hasselti, are about 50 times larger than males and often eat the males during mating. This might sound like a horrible accident, but males could gain some indirect advantage by being cannibalized in this way. Perhaps a female is more likely to accept the sperm of a male that she has eaten than that of a male that has escaped. Researchers watched the mating behavior of 32 virgin female redback spiders, recording whether each female ate her first mate and then whether she rejected advances from a second male later placed in her vicinity (Andrade 1996). The results were as follows:
a. How does cannibalism affect the odds that the second male is accepted?
b. What method would you use to test the association between these two variables? Why?
Step by Step Answer:
The Analysis Of Biological Data
ISBN: 9781319226237
3rd Edition
Authors: Michael C. Whitlock, Dolph Schluter