Males of some spider species lay silk threads on the female’s body during courtship and/or copulation. There are several hypotheses trying to explain the function of this behavior, known as bridal veil deposition. One of them proposes that bridal veils could occur to immobilize females and prevent sexual cannibalism when females are larger than males, or that they could inhibit female aggressive behavior. Ctenus longipes is a wandering and nocturnal spider that inhabits ravine forests in South America. The aim of this work was to describe in detail courtship and copulatory behaviors in C. longipes and confirm the occurrence of a bridal veil, discussing its possible functions in this species. For that purpose, we exposed 13 virgin male-female pairs at laboratory conditions and recorded courtship, copulation, and post-copulation behaviors. We also measured body and leg size of all individuals to estimate sexual size dimorphism. In all the cases, the male deposited silk on top of the female’s body in the form of a bridal veil, covering the anterior carapace and forelegs. The data did not support the hypothesis that bridal veil deposition is related to sexual cannibalism avoidance because females were not immobilized during mating, larger females did not present longer silk bindings, and we did not observe aggressions in any case. Future studies where males are prevented from producing silk will allow a better understanding of whether or not the veil is involved in avoiding cannibalism in C. longipes.

中文翻译：

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丝绸的五十种色调：蜘蛛Ctenus longipes中的性行为和新娘面纱沉积

在求偶和/或交配期间，某些蜘蛛的雄性在雌性的身上铺设丝线。有几种假设试图解释这种行为的功能，称为新娘面纱沉积。其中之一提出，当女性比男性大时，可能会出现新娘面纱以固定女性并防止性相食，或者它们可能抑制女性的侵略行为。Ctenus longipes是一种游走和夜间活动的蜘蛛，栖息在南美的山沟森林中。这个工作的目的是在详细求偶和交配行为描述C.长柄并确认新娘面纱的出现，并讨论其在该物种中的可能功能。为此，我们在实验室条件下暴露了13对处女，并记录了求爱，交配和交配后的行为。我们还测量了所有个体的身体和腿部大小，以估计两性的性别大小。在所有情况下，雄性都以新娘面纱的形式将丝沉积在雌性身体的顶部，覆盖前甲和前肢。数据不支持这样的假设，即新娘面纱沉积与避免性食人有关，因为雌性在交配过程中没有被固定，较大的雌性没有更长的丝结，并且在任何情况下我们都没有观察到侵略。C. longipes。