#the matriphagy thing fucks me up for some reason I can't stop thinking about that

[tearlessrain]

I can't figure out a way to articulate this that's getting me answers, probably because I did not get enough sleep last night but like. I wonder about this all the time. do they understand why they're spinning webs or are they just compelled and then food happens? and like I fell down a wikipedia rabbit hole and there's this one species that practices apparently voluntary matriphagy where a female spider will actively encourage her young to eat her after they reach a certain stage of growth and it's like. does she have some comprehension of the fact that she's going to be eaten? obviously it's advantageous from an evolutionary standpoint but on a personal level what's motivating her to do that? is it total autopilot? is it calculated? somewhere in between? why do male black widows seek out mates that will attempt to eat them? like idk humans have been known to risk their lives to fuck but spiders don't even fuck the male just kinda shoves sperm at her with its arms and books it so like do they get happy chemicals from that interaction or do they just have some kinda brain program running that tells them to do that? I just have a lot of questions about the motivations of spiders.