Signature Spiders (male & female)

So, what happened to these spiders? Here, in the Philippines, it is common to see much bigger spiders - Huntsman Spiders (Heteropoda venatoria) with legs missing. That is usually the result of an attack by a Butiki (Common House Gecko). But nothing like that could possibly have happened to a female Argiope luzona (I will get around to the male in a moment). This female never leaves her web. A predator like a Spider Wasp would simply fly down, snatch her from her web and fly away with her in his grasp. A Mantis would watch the female spider and wait for his chance to grab her if she strays too close to the edge of her web. So, if our female did not lose her legs to a predator, what can have happened. The answer lies in the normal (and rather brutal) lifestyle of Argiope spiders. When a male chooses the right moment to mate with the very much larger female, he does so in the knowledge that as soon as the copulation is over, she will try to kill him and eat him. So, when she launches her murderous attack, he has to struggle for his life. Sometimes, the male is lucky and escapes, but he waits and watches from a safe distance and then mates with her again. However, when she attacks him, after the second copulation, he does not put up a fight and allows her to kill him. It is generally thought that the male will not try to kill the female because he wants his genes to be passed on to the next generation. So, I think that the male in my photo is not waiting for the moment of his first mating with this female. I think he has already mated once and, having escaped with his life (minus one leg) and inflicted damage on the female (the loss of two legs), he is now awaiting his appointment with death. We might think that the life of these spiders is brutal and barbaric, but we should remember that they have been around for many millions of years. So, they must be doing something right.