A friend alerted me to this article in the NYT about cannibalism, spiders and procreation:

'Sexual cannibalism makes mating dangerous for male spiders of many species.'

(...)

'Males with longer legs were also more successful at surviving, showing that size is important if you are in a species in which courtship makes mixed martial arts look like a Texas two-step.

Ms. Anderson, whose work on the spiders is part of her doctoral research, wants to determine if there is a benefit for the females as well as the males in this kind of mating.

The males who are able to wrap the females’ legs have more successful copulations, as measured by the number of insertions of the pedipalp, which delivers sperm to the female. And if the result is that the females who have been wrapped have more eggs, that could mean that both sexes benefit and the behavior is, at least in evolutionary terms, mutually beneficial.

For the males with blocked spinnerets, mating was usually terminal. Really terminal. The females don’t leave leftovers. “You may see a leg or two fall off,” as the females are eating, Ms. Anderson said, “but they usually eat the whole thing.”'

Read the article by James Gorman here.

That's romanticism: being aware that you can be eaten by your partner while copulating and willing to take the risk. Dying for lust or for posterity.