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The gravity hypothesis of sexual size dimorphism can explain the patterns of extreme  sexual size dimorphism in spiders (males smaller than females) because small males  climb faster and therefore may be better at reaching females that live in high habitats.  Recently, the main prediction of a negative relationship between climbing speed and  body size in spiders has been called into question. Here we induced males and females of  the spider <i>Leucauge venusta</i> (Tetragnathidae) to run on vertical surfaces and found partial  support for the gravity hypothesis. As predicted, males climb faster than females and  we demonstrated that this effect is an indirect effect mediated by the negative relationship  between body mass and climbing speed. We validate our results using simulated  data showing that there is enough statistical efficiency in our data set to support our  conclusions. We distinguished between direct and indirect effects (through mass) on sex  differences in climbing speed by means of path analysis. Thus, we provide empirical  evidence that by being smaller, males are able to climb faster than females. However, we  found only a barely significant negative relationship between climbing speed and body  size when only males were considered. Reasons for such results are discussed within the  text

Mass-mediated sex differences in climbing patterns support the gravity hypothesis of sexual size dimorphism