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Question: Do web-building spider males respond to dietary restriction by increased lifespan, as is observed in many other organisms?

Hypothesis: Adult males normally do not feed, have extremely high extrinsic mortality rates during mate search, and mate only once, hence they are less likely to benefit from increased lifespan in terms of future reproductive success. Accordingly, they are not expected to respond to dietary restriction by increased lifespan.

Organism: Adult white widow spider (Latrodectus pallidus) males.

Methods: Virgin adult males were kept on a low diet or fed ad libitum. Longevity of males was recorded.

Results: As opposed to our predictions we found that food-restricted male spiders survived longer than males that fed ad libitum.