 Mated males are castrated in the process of mate plugging, though this may be an advantage in mate guarding, as mated males have been observed to fight more aggressively and win more frequently than virgin males.So while the female spiders are still at least potentially polygamous, the males have become monogamous.Up to the late 1980s, following Eugène Simon in 1894, "Nephila" and its close relatives were considered to make up the subfamily Nephilinae of the family Araneidae.