Praying Mantis is a fairly common insect that is familiar to many people. Surely you had to at least once in your life pay attention to this rather large creature, perhaps even observe its behavior. Our article will tell you about the most unusual behavioral features of mantis, namely, why the female kills and eats the male immediately after mating or even during it.
Aggressive predator
Absolutely all types of mantis are predators and excellent hunters. Their movements are accurate and deadly. A mantis can attack not only a bug inferior to it in strength and size, but also a larger prey, for example, a snake, a lizard or a bird. Fights between relatives are also frequent, and the battles of praying mantises, as a rule, end with the death of one of the rivals.
It is also widely known that even mating ends in a deadly fight. Scientists are currently putting forward several versions explaining the fact of the killing and eating of males by females, but research does not stop. Let's look at these versions.
Death in the name of life
Entomologists have long noticed that after death, the mantis continues to move for some time: it can run away, hide and even pretend to be dead (it is not entirely clear what the last phenomenon is due to; it is probably part of the lifetime mechanism of self-preservation, which does not go out immediately after death) In any case, at the time of agony and immediately after the onset of death, motor activity persists for some time and even increases.
One of the assumptions connected with this explains why a female mantis kills a male during mating. The headless body begins to move faster, the release of sperm increases. Thus, the female receives a large portion of seminal fluid, due to which a larger number of eggs will be fertilized.
This version has a weak point: far from always killing occurs during mating, often the female mantis after the act waits a few seconds before making a deadly throw.
Protein source
Regardless of the moment of the murder, the female mantis eats the male after mating. The head goes first. Researchers believe that this is due to the high protein content necessary for future offspring. It turns out that the female is driven by maternal instinct? She simply wants to give the kids everything they need and chooses the easiest way for this.
Having finished his head, the female usually proceeds to the subsequent meal: the body also has a lot of useful and nutritious substances.
Hunter Instinct
There is an assumption that a female praying mantis eats a partner due to an overly developed hunting instinct. She just sees him as a victim. Insects are alien to romantic feelings, but they like to eat tightly. Why not take a moment and devour a defenseless victim?
By the way, we note that in these insects sexual dimorphism is well developed. The photo shows that the male is smaller than the female, and his forepaws are much thinner and not at all so powerful. He has no chance in a fight, and she perfectly understands this.
Which version is correct? Probably the truth is somewhere in between. It is possible that the behavior of the female is influenced by a combination of several factors caused by the most important instincts: procreation and self-preservation. To give birth to more children, more seminal fluid is needed. For future babies to develop well, protein is needed. And in order to survive itself, food is needed.
Egg laying
What happens next? After mating, the female praying mantis lays from one to three hundred eggs. It covers the masonry with a special adhesive liquid, which soon hardens, forming a kind of capsule - an ooteca. Inside, an optimum level of humidity and temperature is maintained.
Mantis mating occurs in August. In some regions with a warm climate, the incubation period rarely lasts longer than a month. And in temperate latitudes, masonry hibernates before the onset of heat.
The appeared larvae are selected from the ooteka and begin an independent life. The mother does not take part in feeding and protecting offspring, but the father does not have such an opportunity.
Chance for life
Surely interested in the life of insects, the reader asks whether the male praying mantis has at least some chance of escape. In fact, the statistics are not so sad. Researchers observing these creatures estimated that mantis females after mating kill and eat males in only half the cases.
You can be glad for the male part of the mantis population, but this does not bring us closer to the disclosure of secrets. On the contrary, the understanding that only 50% of mating ends in the death of a partner raises even more questions. So murder is not a necessity? By mating with a live male, does the female receive enough seminal fluid so that the population is out of danger? Valuable protein for unborn babies is not so important? And the female exhausted after copulation does not die of hunger at all, if she does not immediately bite off her partner’s head?
In search of answers to all questions, scientists noticed several interesting features. Firstly, it was established that the male always acts as the mating initiator. Secondly, it was noticed that well-fed females are less likely to attack partners. They are generally lazy and not too mobile (the process of digesting food in these insects is quite long). However, it is the hungry men who seem to be much more attractive to males. A female who has not eaten for a long time may even cause a fight between several mantis ready for mating. Scientists also determined that if the male was not killed during copulation, he often tries to quietly crawl back until the partner rushed at him. A group of researchers who observed the behavior of these insects in South America managed to discover another unusual detail - it turns out that males of some species precede copulation with a peculiar dance. Perhaps so they expect to win the favor of the chosen one and stay alive.
Shatter another myth related to the reproduction of mantis. Some wildlife lovers mistakenly believe that absolutely all species are distinguished by such sexual behavior. This is far from the case. Currently, science knows about 2000 species of these insects, but cannibalism is not common to everyone. However, there is something in common: the male always tries to sneak up from behind, wanting not to catch the eye of the chosen one.
