Thousands of hairy, dancing male tarantulas are emerging from their hidden burrows of the western U.S. in record numbers in search of the perfect eight-legged partner. The annual mating season lasts from late August to October and this year experts say there are more tarantulas on the make than usual. The male tarantulas are not mature for the first five to eight years of their life, but when they reach their sexual maturity they join with other randy arachnids in search of female burrows. In an interview with the Guardian, Forest Urban, manager of the invertebrate program with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, explains that the tarantula genitalia are near the spider’s face and look like boxing gloves. “They use this glove-like apparatus to dispel sperm, and then it deflates like a balloon,” he said. The male then high tails it out of the female den before she eats him.
