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Bubble of love

Male water spiders try a bit of buddy breathing to gain a mate.

Spring is face-off time for spiders and two mismatched spiders take each other on. One is much bigger than the other, but it's the larger one than runs away - and jumps into the pond. This is a water spider and is perfectly at home underwater. He can breathe because he collects air bubbles on his hairy legs and abdomen, building up an air supply in an underwater web, collecting bubbles and trapping them there as a 'diving bell'. The web also has tripwires coming out from it which can catch prey and warn him of predators. But why not live on land? Well, it's much safer down here - there aren’t as many predators. The spider catches a midge larva and takes it back to the bubble of air to eat it - he might live underwater, but he can't eat down here. The male goes looking for a mate and comes across a female's bubble. Unfortunately she doesn't seem much interested and leaves. Not believing he's been turned down, the male moves into here bubble and waits patiently for her to returns and give him a second chance.

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5 minutes

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