A brave mantis man fights with his female partner to avoid being eaten, a new study shows.
Researchers in New Zealand analyzed the mating behaviors of the extremely cannibalistic springbok mantis (Miomantis caffra), a species of praying mantis.
Praying mantises have a reputation for cannibalism, as females often eat males before they have a chance to mate.
But in this species, the male and female fight in a “violent fight” before mating, as each partner tries to be the first to grab the other with his front legs.
If the female wins, it means an almost certain death for the male, but if the male wins, the chance of mating successfully increases dramatically, while often injuring the female in the process.
Instead of avoiding cannibalism by being shy and cautious, men can overcome the threat of cannibalism through “coercive fights in females,” experts say.
60 percent of sexual encounters between springbok mantises – which is one of nearly 2,000 mantis species worldwide – end in male consumption.
Stunning video shows the noble man marrying the older female inside the cups in a laboratory.
The red arrow indicates an abdominal wound healed on a female springbok mantissa after a meeting with a man
The study provides the first evidence of coercive mating in a mantissa.
“Men play Russian roulette whenever they meet cannibal females,” said study 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 mantissa.
“Sexual conflict in the insect world is not so unusual and usually favors a cautious or tactical approach.
“But the male springbok mantis is really struggling to achieve its goal, and this study shows that it may be the best option for reproductive success.”
Male (top) female (bottom) Miomantis caffra mating in Auckland, New Zealand. The female’s abdomen is visibly bulging as it carries eggs from a previous mating encounter
The springbok mantis is native to South Africa, but is commonly found in New Zealand after it was first identified there in 1978.
For this study, the researchers collected 52 pairs of springbok mantises 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,” writes Dr. Burke and his co-author in Auckland, Professor Gregory Holwell.
“For mating studies, we associated adult virgin males and females inside 700 ml clear plastic cups and observed their behaviors.”
They found that 29 of the 52 couples (56%) had 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 flapping her wings quickly.
Almost all – 90% – got into physical fights, which lasted, on average, 12.77 seconds.
Of these, 7% resulted in a no-win separation.
A female species Miomantis caffra that lays its eggs. The species is a moderately sized mantle with one of the highest known rates of pre-copulatory cannibalism. More than 60% of sexual interactions end with male consumption, especially without mating
35 percent of the fights resulted in the woman grabbing the man first and all of these fights ended in cannibalism.
Men were the first to understand women in 58% of battles.
Of these, 67% ended in mating (half of which later ended in cannibalism), 13% ended in unpaired cannibalism, and 20% ended in neither cannibalism nor mating.
On several occasions, the women who lost the fight tried to catch the men attached, but failed to do so.
Another unusual finding was that 27% of women who lost the fight were injured by the male’s foretibial claws.
This led to severe abdominal puncture wounds that later formed black crusts – something also observed in females in the wild.
Researchers believe that the “intimidating and harmful nature” of male wrestling behavior suggests that it is a form of “sexual coercion” that forces males to mate.
“I’ve learned a lot of fascinating biology from Miomantis caffra over the last decade, but this latest work is truly amazing,” said Professor Holwell.
“This is the best example of men struggling to cope with the risk of sexual cannibalism.”
The study was published in the journal Biology Letters.