A new study reveals that brave mantis men fight with their partner to avoid eating.
Researchers in New Zealand examined the mating behaviors of the highly cannibalistic mantis (Springbok mantis) (Miomantis caffra), a species of religious mantis.
Religious mantises have a reputation for cannibalism, because females often eat males before they have a chance to mate.
But in this particular species, the male and female fight in a “violent fight” before mating, as each pair tries to be the first to grab the other with the front legs.
If the female wins, it means an almost certain death for the male, but if the male wins it dramatically increases his chances of successful mating, while often injuring the female in the process.
Instead of avoiding cannibalism by being shy and cautious, men can overcome the threat of cannibalism by “fighting females coercively,” experts say.
60 percent of sexual encounters between spring dock blankets (one of nearly 2,000 species of mantis worldwide) end up in male consumption.
An amazing video shows the noble male scrapping with the biggest female inside the cups of a lab.
The red arrow indicates a healed abdominal wound in the female mantis of a springbok after an encounter with a male
The study provides the first evidence of coercive mating in a mantis.
“Men play Russian roulette every time they meet cannibalistic women,” said the study’s author, Dr. Nathan Burke, an entomologist at the University of Auckland and an expert on mantis mating rituals.
“It is rare for males to avoid cannibalism through this form of coercion (physically fighting females to mate successfully), and this is the first evidence of this behavior in a cannibalistic mantis.
‘Sexual conflict in the world of insects is not so unusual and usually favors a tactical and prudent approach.
“But the springbok’s male mantis is really struggling to achieve its goal and this study shows that this could be their best option in terms of reproductive success.”
Male (upper) female (lower) mating of Miomantis caffra in Auckland, New Zealand. The abdomen of the female is visibly saved, as it carries eggs from a previous mating encounter
The springbok mantis is native to southern Africa, but is commonly found in New Zealand after it was first identified in 1978.
For this study, the researchers collected 52 pairs of springbok blankets and observed their behavior in the laboratory over a 24-hour period.
“All individuals were housed in individual enclosures and fed three to five houseflies (Musca domestica) three times a week,” Dr. Burke and his co-author in Auckland, Professor Gregory Holwell, write in their paper.
“For mating trials, we mated adult virgin males and females inside 700 ml clear plastic cups and observed their behavior.”
They found that 29 of the 52 devices (56%) caused physical contact between the sexes in the first 12 hours.
The male was always the first to initiate contact and did so by jumping on the female while quickly flapping her wings.
Almost all (90%) became physical struggles, which lasted, on average, 12.77 seconds.
Of these, 7% resulted in no-win separation.
A female species of Miomantis caffra that lays eggs. The species is a moderately sized mantis with one of the highest rates of precopulatory cannibalism. More than 60% of sexual interactions end up in male consumption, mostly without mating
35 percent of the fights caused the female to catch the male first and all of these fights ended in cannibalism.
Males were the first to capture females in 58% of fights.
Of these, 67% ended up in mating (half of which ended in cannibalism), 13% ended up in cannibalism without mating, and 20% did not end up in cannibalism or mating.
On several occasions, the women who lost the fight tried to grab the men together but failed.
Another unusual finding was that 27% of women who lost the fight were injured by the male’s foretibial claws.
This caused strong abdominal puncture wounds that later formed black crusts, which was also observed in wild females.
Researchers think the “intimidating and harmful nature” of male wrestling behavior suggests that it is a form of “sexual coercion” by which males force females to mate.
“We’ve learned a lot of fascinating biology of Miomantis caffra over the last decade, but this latest work is really amazing,” Professor Holwell said.
“This is the best example of men struggling to help deal with the risk of sexual cannibalism.”
The study was published in the journal Biology Letters.