In male spiders, the pedipalps are modified for transferring sperm to the female’s body, a chore necessitated by the fact that spiders lack penises. Furthermore, there is no internal connection between the pedipalps and the testes, which are located within the abdomen. Instead, sperm is initially extruded from a furrow on the male’s abdomen into a spun receptacle called a sperm web. As a male dips his pedipalps into the pooled sperm, a pair of coiled structures called emboli and their associated muscles work like tiny turkey basters to suck up the liquid and store it until copulation.
