The first thing that happens before spiders reproduce is that the male spins a sperm web. A male spider does not inject sperm into a female's body like in other animal species. With spiders, a male puts sperm on his web, and then he puts it on a part of his body called pedipalps. The ends of pedipalps are like a syringe. If a male senses a female spider nearby, he will detect what species she is and whether she is ready to mate by using his sense of smell. If her scent is favorable, then the male prepares to mate with her. The female and male spider have an elaborate courtship. One of the reasons for this is that the male spider doesn't want the female to eat him. It is a myth that all female spiders eat male spiders after they mate. This happens with some species, but some males survive and live with the females, or they escape and go onto their next mate. Males will often cause certain vibrations on the web to stop the females from eating them, or they may touch the females at certain points to almost hypnotize them while fertilization is taking place. If the male is able to "convince" the female not to eat him, then the male will insert his pedipalps with sperm into the female's epigyne, which is located on the underside of her abdomen. All of these activities have to happen in their courtship for spiders to reproduce A female spider can lay up to 3,000 eggs once she has mated with a male spider. Different species lay different numbers of eggs. The spider eggs are protected in a silk sac. Some female spiders die before they see their offspring born, but others live to protect the egg sac until the baby spiders are ready to hatch. Depending on the species, the female may hide her egg sac in her nest, carry it along with her, or attach it to her web. When a baby spider hatches from its egg, it is a small spider called a spiderling. Some species of spiders do take care of their babies once they are hatched.