Wandering and mating
Northern Tree Funnel-web Spiders mating: male left, female right. Photo: © P Walker.
After they mature, male spiders leave their burrows and become wanderers, especially during the summer/autumn months, looking for females in their burrows. Chemicals called pheromones in the female's tripline silk help the male locate and identify her burrow. Well before mating, the male spins a small silk sperm web, onto which he deposits a droplet of sperm from his abdominal genital pore. The sperm it is then taken up and stored in the mating organs at the ends of the male's palps.
The spur and/or spines on the male's second legs are used to hold the female during mating. During mating, considerable sparring occurs until the female accepts the male. Both spiders rear up with first legs raised against each other, while the male engages his mating spurs across the bases of the female's second legs. The male then inseminates the female by inserting the tips of his palpal organs into the female's genital opening on the underside of her abdomen.
