Humans aren’t the only ones to strip off before lovemaking! Spider mite males also ‘undress’ females

There’s nothing sexier than a lover slowly taking your clothes off.

Now researchers have determined that we’re not the only species that undress before coitus.

Scientists have discovered that male spider mites guard the skin of premature females that are about to molt and mature and then actively remove them to make them more readily available for mating.

With spider mites, competition is fierce to be the first to mate with a female.

That’s because a female’s first mating partner is the one who fathers all offspring.

There’s nothing sexier than a lover slowly taking your clothes off (stock image)

Because of this intense competition to be number one, spider mite males guard premature females for hours before the females molt to the adult stage.

In the hours before shedding, females take on a silvery appearance as air fills the gap between the old skin and the new skin.

During this stage, males sometimes drum their legs on the females, possibly to stimulate them to initiate the molting process and make them bulge and burst their outer skin.

Now, researchers at the University of Vienna have discovered that once the outer skin is cracked, the male becomes very active and begins to pull on the skin until it is removed from the female’s body.

Author Peter Schausberger said, “Such undressing behavior by the male is adaptive—that is, it increases their reproductive success—because it would be a huge cost to the guarding male if a rival took the female and inseminates her in place of the male.” who invested time and energy in guarding her.

“The guards would have invested hours in guarding a potential future mate without any reward.”

Their research focused on two-dot spider mites, which are found in the UK.

They are small – only half a millimeter in size – and usually sit on the underside of leaves.

The findings were published in the journal iScience.