Word: redback
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Dates: during 2004-2004
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CANNIBALS Love hurts--and in some species, it kills. For the praying mantis and the Australian redback spider, it's boy meets girl, girl eats boy. But not until boy passes along his genes to the next generation. In the marine bristle worm, however, it's boy eats girl. The male guards the fertilized eggs until they hatch, and since the female dies after mating anyway, the male sometimes has her for supper. For species that have little chance of mating again, a parent offering itself as a last meal can be a bit of insurance that the offspring will...