Children's Game

• Spider fighting is a common sport with children in the Philippines. In this organized spider fighting, the children take two spiders and put them on opposite ends of a stick. They tilt the stick back and forth until the spiders meet at the center of the stick and wrestle. The spider that falls off the stick loses the fight. This game is the earliest form of competitive sports viewing for a young child in the Philippines.
  
  

Male Ritual Display

• Most fights between two male spiders in nature are full of ritual behavior, the equivalent of two gorillas pounding on their respective chests to show their ferocity. Male spider fights often do not end in one of the fighters being injured or killed. The main reason a male spider fights another spider is to defend a female. In nomadic species, males will sometimes fight when they encounter each other while out looking for a mate. A male spider will often nest next to his mate and fight off any other male spiders that approach.
  
  

To the Death

• Females of the species Phidippus clarus, or jumper spiders, exhibit the most extreme form of spider fighting. Unlike males who indicate their intentions to fight, females of this species will attack one another. The fight becomes extreme and unlike males where one will leave the fight wounded but not fatally so, females will fight until one of them is dead. Studies in to this behavior show that females molt. In the time between losing one skin and growing another they are both vulnerable and aggressive as they have a higher hormonal level.
  
  

Performance Review

• Only one out of five males in the species of Australian redback spiders has a chance of finding a mate. The other four who go without a mate may have longer lives. Female Australian redback spiders will attack and kill a male suitor if his performance during mating is not up to par. In this species other males sometimes wait for the first suitor to be killed, then move in. The female of the species also eats her satisfactory suitor after mating. She completes her dinner shortly after mating, while the male is still alive.