(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Germany and Aarhus University in Denmark has found that female virgin velvet spiders (Stegodyphus dumicola) in addition to assisting close relatives in raising their young, allow themselves to be eaten alive by the spiderlings. In their paper published in the journal Animal Behavior, the group describes their study of the spiders and the possible advantages they get from allowing females that never mate to be eaten by young members of the colony.