You probably know of many animals in which the males and females look very different. Male lions, for example, have beautiful manes, while lioness do not. In birds, males tend to be beautifully colored, while the females are not—just think of ducks, chicken, or peacocks. But do you know how to distinguish spider-men and -women? Usually, female spiders are bigger, but only if they are well-fed. Females can also be a different color than the males of their species, but this is not true for all species. You can use another really safe trick to identify a male spider. In front of their four walking legs, both spider males and females have another pair of appendages, the pedipalps. The pedipalps are used for many of the spider skills explained above, like feeding, sensing, catching prey, and mating. And exactly on the tip of these pedipalps only adult male spiders have a specialized organ, which looks like boxing gloves.

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