A few short stories about female praying mantis eating male praying mantises

About the story of the female praying mantis eating the male praying mantis, we have been deceived for a long time, and the real reason is this.

1. The traditional view is that the female mantis eats the male mantis after mating in order to obtain the nutritional breastfeeding offspring of the male mantis, and there is also a view that the male mantis is more conducive to the development and growth of the baby mantis because it contains the genes of the offspring, and an experiment in 1988 proved that the female mantis who ate the mate had 20% more offspring than the one who did not eat the mate.

2. However, now more research has proved that this behavior does not occur after every mating, at least the male mantis is not willingly eaten by the female praying mantis, and the direct correlation with this behavior may be hunger. In 1984, two scientists, Riske (and Davis) (although also in the laboratory observed the large knife mantis intercourse. But some improvements were made:

They feed the mantis beforehand, dim the lights, and let the mantis enjoy itself. People are not on the side**, but use a camera to record. The results were unexpected:

Of the thirty matings, none of them were eaten by the husband. Instead, for the first time, they recorded the mantis's intricate courtship ritual: the male and female danced in as little as 10 minutes and as long as two hours.

Riske and Davis believe that one of the reasons why praying mantis eaters have been frequently observed in the laboratory in the past is that under the conditions of direct observation, the mantis that has lost its "privacy" has no chance to perform a courtship ceremony, and this ritual can eliminate the malice of the female mantis, which is necessary for the male mantis to mate successfully. Another reason is that the praying mantis fed in the laboratory is often in a state of hunger, and the female praying mantis is hungry and treats her husband as a delicacy. To prove this, Riske and Davis conducted a series of experiments in 1987.

They found that the female praying mantises, who were in a state of high hunger (had been starving for 5 to 11 days), pounced on the male and grabbed them to eat, and had no intention of copulating at all. Female praying mantis that is moderately starved (starved for 3 to 5 days) will intermate, but will try to eat their mates during or after copulation. And those female praying mantis who are not hungry do not want to eat mates.

It can be seen that the main motivation of female mantis eaters is because they are hungry. But in the wild, not all female praying mantis can eat their stomachs, so it is still possible to eat husbands. In 1992, Lawrence conducted the first large-scale field study of the mating behavior of the European praying mantis in Portugal.

About 31% of the mantis mating phenomena he observed occurred as husband-eaters. In the wild, female praying mantis is probably moderately hungry. Eating a male mantis is indeed beneficial to the mantis' offspring.

A 1988 study showed that female praying mantis that ate their mates had 20 percent more offspring than those who didn't. Riske and Davis also admit that the husband-eating phenomenon that occurs in European mantis may be far more common than other praying mantises, and that it is they who bring notoriety to the mantis. However, it is clear that the male praying mantis was not eaten willingly.

Reproductive behavior, female praying mantis will eat male mantises, which is normal, just for the sake of their baby's adequate nutrition. It's just the law of nature.

In the past, most of the praying mantis were in a state of hunger, so why did the female praying mantis eat the male mantis after mating, but in the natural state, not only did not observe eating the male praying mantis, but they would dance a short "dance" to familiarize themselves with each other's rhythm.

This is different from spiders, because males are willing to let females eat themselves (in nature, most females, who have been eliminated by the environment before meeting the opposite sex, can mate twice, which is basically impossible, and being eaten increases the probability of survival of the offspring).

Later, the experiment in the early years was repeated, and whether the female mantis ate the male mantis after mating or not depends on whether it is hungry or not, and the female mantis in a state of extreme hunger will eat the male mantis even before mating.

Because the female praying mantis carries a baby mantis and needs nutrition. Including female praying mantis itself will also be eaten.

Why do female praying mantis eat male praying mantises? Is it really "the most poisonous thing in a woman's heart"?

The hot summer has arrived, and there is a praying mantis in the grass playing the piano every day. Suddenly, he saw a large number of ants busily carrying food. Curious, the praying mantis stopped an ant and asked, "Mr. Ant, what are you doing?" ”

We were looking for food, and when we found it, we moved it to the cave to store it in preparation for winter. Ant said. The praying mantis thought: There is food everywhere here, and there is no need to store it. Thinking about it, he quietly walked away.

The hot summer is over, the cool autumn has arrived, and the ants are busy every day, tirelessly toiling. But what about praying mantises? I was playing the piano every day, carefree, and the grass gradually turned yellow and withered.

The northwest wind was howling, the wind was fierce, and the snow was falling one after another, and the snow was white, and the grass was gone, and the sound of the praying mantis playing the harp could no longer be heard.

The praying mantis couldn't find food to eat and was so hungry that it didn't have any strength, and it finally understood why the ants were storing food. Cockroaches can't help it, they go to the ant's house every day to eat food, and they feel very embarrassed.

Another summer is coming, and the cockroaches are playing the harp. Suddenly he saw many ants busy carrying food, and he also put down his harp and went to look for food, and as the days passed, the cockroach filled his storeroom with food, and gave the food he found to the ants, and said to the ants, "Give it to you, I ate a lot of your food last year."

The ant said, "Keep it for yourselves and eat it slowly!" The cockroach said

I've saved enough, I'll give it to you! The ants accepted the food from the cockroach and smiled happily and praised the cockroach for its ability. The cockroach smiled sheepishly.

This story teaches us that a good life is earned through labor, and no one can sit back and enjoy it. Behind those beautiful things, the efforts and bitterness of others are also self-evident.

After reading this story, I feel that the praying mantis may do better in the future than it is now, and it will do good deeds anytime and anywhere.