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A note for anyone affected by arachnophobia: in this thread we won't be posting any pictures of whole spiders, although we will include some photos of close-up bits of spiders behind a content screen. We'll also be giving verbal descriptions of spider anatomy and behaviour.

Our first order of business when discussing if spider has pusspuss is defining the pusspuss. Many would define pusspuss as a vagina and vulva. These anatomical parts are typically limited to mammals, and if we use this definition, then Yahoo Answers contributor Sisyphus is quite correct in their resounding NO!!!!!!!!!

However, since pusspuss is an entirely slang term, there is nothing to say we have to be quite so strict on definitions. Female spiders do indeed have some anatomical features which could quite reasonably be described as a pusspuss, featuring internal and external parts.

A female spider has an organ called an epigyne, which is an external groove on its underside - sort of a bit like a vulva. The epigyne leads to the spermatheca, a pair of organs which store sperm.

(bees have spermathecae, too, we told you a bit about those in this thread) https://masto.ai/@vagina_museum/109556992096895824

Spiders are a big group of invertebrates, which means there's a huge range of mating strategies. However, there's some principles which are common to pretty much all of them. They practice internal fertilisation, which means sperm is inside the female when fertilisation happens.

The way sperm transfer happens starts with the male. Sperm comes from the spider's abdomen, but is transferred to its pedipalps - the first pair of "legs" on a spider, which it kind of uses as hands. This often happens by it spinning a little web to make the transfer.

The male spider then meets a female spider who often signals that it is down for some sexy time in some way. Sometimes that's secreting pheromones, sometimes it's by not killing any approaching males, and sometimes it's other various signals, because there are lots of spiders.

The male then mounts the female, and puts its left pedipalp in the left side of the epigyne, its right pedipalp in the right epigyne and releases the sperm.

The grooves on the epigyne help the sperm to get into the spider and it is stored in the spermatheca, ready to be used for fertilising eggs. Sometimes they're fertilised immediately, sometimes it can be months.

Spiders also vary in how and where they lay their eggs. Because there's such a variation in mating strategies, egg laying, and egg fertilisation, this means there is a LOT of variety in spider epigynes.

So diverse and different are spider epigynes that they are used for identifying spider species, fairly reliably. Two spiders which otherwise look similar and are from closely-related species will often have very different-looking epigynes, so their epigynes can be used to differentiate.

So, to answer Yahoo Answers user Susan's question (we hope they're reading this), does spider have pusspuss? SORT OF!!!!!! AND THEIR BITS ARE VERY INTERESTING!!!!!!!!