Contrary to popular belief, not all female spiders recycle their mates as a wedding feast. But M. segmentata sometimes does. Researchers have found that the males of this species can figure out which females are worth risking all for by assessing chemical cues incorporated into the females' web silk. The male, who will often loiter at the edge of the female's web for days, makes his move only when the female is preoccupied wrapping prey. He approaches her, nudges her aside, and starts to wrap the prey himself. He then snips the threads of the web around the prey and builds a multi-strand “nuptial thread," from which the prey is suspended and upon which copulation occurs. Spider sex is nothing if not complicated.

— Leslie Brunetta