discoverynews:

Male spiders castrate themselves so their manhood doesn’t weigh them down when they’re fighting off competitors, say researchers.

Associate Professor Daiqin Li from the National University of Singapore, and colleagues, report their findings today in Biology Letters.

“The eunuch males are better fighters because they are lighter and they have an increased endurance,” says Li, an expert in animal behavior.

“They try to prevent the other males from mating with the female.”

This important bug news is part of ongoing animal dong coverage from Salon (dinosaur dong story), Scientific American (turtle dong story), and Discover (Kangaroos have three vaginas story). Good work, everybody.