Why do praying mantis sometimes have females eating males? Bonus points

Why do female praying mantis eat male praying mantises.

Sexual reproduction is the cooperation between male and female, caring for each other, and jointly completing the sacred task of having children. However, in the animal world, there are actually some "tigresses" who take the opportunity of the wedding to treat their husbands as a delicacy.

The praying mantis is a prime example of this.

Every autumn, the male praying mantis begins to embark on the journey of "falling in love" and "proposing".

In the dense bushes, as soon as the male mantis sees the female, he rushes forward on duty. It straightened its chest, stretched its neck, and flapped its wings to make a "clatter" sound to let the other party know what it was anxious about.

When the male mantis saw the female mantis's "marriage" expression, he spread his wings and solemnly held a "marriage ceremony".

The "wedding" of the praying mantis is not all comedy. During mating, the male mantis loses his balance due to excessive forward leaning, so that he falls in front of the female mantis, at which point the female mantis will unceremoniously eat it.

Some experts believe that praying mantis is accustomed to preying on various insects for a living, and its food is so large that many endovorous insects are out of reach. Usually, the female mantis has more appetite and appetite than the male mantis, and it can catch the prey it finds one by one and store the nutrients in the body. In the mating period, it is the peak of the female mantis's appetite in her life, and out of her own needs, it eats part of the male mantis's limbs to store nourishment for childbearing.

Through observation, a new discovery was made about the mystery of the "eater" of the praying mantis, which turned out to be caused by the male being in a hurry to mate due to the maturity of the female mantis's sexual organs. Males have early sexual organs that mature early and individuals are small, while females have late sexual organs that mature and are large and weigh twice as much as males. If the female's sexual organs are not yet mature and the male is in a hurry to mate, the female will unceremoniously eat the male mantis as a snack.

If the sexual organs of the female are mature, the male mantis is only 20 percent of the population.

Sometimes females will eat males' heads at the beginning of mating.

The reasons why female praying mantis eats male praying mantis are: female praying mantis needs a lot of nutrients to lay eggs and make egg sheaths, female praying mantis hunting instinct, in order for mating to go smoothly, etc.

1. Female praying mantis needs a lot of nutrients to lay eggs and make egg sheaths

If you do a lot of outdoor sports, you must have seen some tree trunks, branches, or grass stems that look like a foam-like gray-brown object, and if you pinch it by hand, it is elastic, and when you cut it, it really looks like a foam-like porous structure.

This is the egg sac of the praying mantis, also known as the mantis, you can't imagine that a single praying mantis can make such a huge cricket, even if it is foamy, it needs a lot of substance, so the male mantis is just a part of one.

2. The hunting instinct of the female praying mantis

The praying mantis is a solitary insect, its "IQ" can't understand what it means to be a partner, and after the mating is completed, it turns around and finds a big prey sent to the door, and immediately "a big knife", so the male mantis dedicates himself to love! Another key is that compared with the female praying mantis, the male mantis is obviously smaller, and on this occasion, the male mantis is obviously not an opponent, so this is a bit unjust!

3. In order for mating to proceed smoothly

It is said that the behavior of male praying mantis is controlled by the nerve center during mating, and the fertilization rate decreases, and the probability greatly increases after the head is bitten off, hence this theory.

The habits of the praying mantis

Praying mantis is a carnivorous insect that hunts all kinds of insects and small animals, and can eliminate many pests in fields and forest areas, so it is a beneficial insect.

Brutal and aggressive by nature, lack of food, often have the phenomenon of swallowing small and female eating male. It is found in South America.

Some species can also attack small birds and lizards from time to time.

or small animals such as frogs. Praying mantis has protective colors, and some have mimicry.

It is similar to its environment, and it preys on a variety of pests.

It is agile and takes only seconds to hunt. It eats only live insects and firmly feeds on its prey with its spiny forelegs. When frightened, it flutters its wings and rustles, revealing a distinct warning color.

It is commonly found in vegetation rather than on the ground, and can resemble green or brown dead leaves, twigs, and lichens.

Flowers or ants. Relying on mimicry not only allows you to avoid predators, but it is also difficult to detect when approaching or waiting for your prey.

Because female mantis mantis in a state of moderate starvation will copulate, during or after DAO copulation, they will try to eat their mate.

Scientists are in fact.

Laboratory studies have found that female praying mantis that are in a state of high hunger (having been starving for 5 to 11 days) pounce on the male as soon as they see the male and grab them, and have 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.

Why does the female mantis eat the male mantis after mating? The truth is hard to accept!

Because during the mating period of the praying mantis, after the male mantis and the female mantis mate, because pregnancy requires a lot of energy, the female mantis has no way to prey at this time, so she chooses to eat the male mantis to supplement nutrition. This behavior is a behavior that has been produced by praying mantis for many years of evolution, and it is also a way for the praying mantis population to thrive.

Exterior features. The praying mantis is the largest insect in size, with a body length of 55 to 105 mm, and the African praying mantis is the largest in the world, with a streamlined body, mainly green and brown, and also has a spotted species; The signature feature is the presence of two "broadswords", the forelimbs, with a row of hard serrations and climbing suction cups at the ends of the hooks.