Why Does the Female Praying Mantis Eat the Male When She Eats the Male Praying Mantis?
In nature, it is common for many animals to eat the male after mating, such as the famous black widow spider, scorpions have similar behaviors, and even the romantic fireflies will also do this. However, the praying mantis we are going to talk about is much more terrifying than the above insects.
Most praying mantises have hookworms living in their bodies, and sometimes hookworms can be seen crawling out of the mantis's belly. Because many people may be scared by the movie 'Hookworm Invasion', people may be more afraid of this parasite. However, hookworms are not so terrible in reality, so everyone can rest assured. But being parasitized by it is very uncomfortable. However, this example is rare, most of the time it is female.
The size difference between male and female praying mantises indicates that the male cannot defeat the female, so he is eaten. Of course, it is not always the case that the female will eat the male after mating. For the female, the male praying mantis may just be prey. The praying mantis's hunting is mainly out of instinct. As long as the prey appears in the female praying mantis's hunting range, it is tantamount to delivering a meal to the door. How could she miss it? In addition, the praying mantis's nervous inhibition center is in the head, theoretically, the female praying mantis eating the male praying mantis's head can greatly increase the probability of fertilization.
Female praying mantises are not always eating the male praying mantis who has mated, it depends on whether they are hungry at that time. For example, if the female praying mantis has enough food, she will not usually eat this 'temporary husband'. Statistics show that only about 30% of male praying mantises are eaten by female praying mantises, and most of them escaped. Of course, these male praying mantises who escaped have no idea when they will die in the mouth of a female praying mantis, but 'die under a peony, even if you are a ghost, you can be flamboyant'
Compared to praying mantises, the Australian red-backed spider (black widow) may be even more unfortunate. When mating with a female black widow spider, this process is more like an exchange, but the price paid by the male is a life: the female spider releases pheromones to lure male spiders to come for mating, when the male injects sperm into the female, the female has also injected digestive juice into the male, after mating, the male's body is almost converted into a drinkable juice by digestive juice. Under such conditions, the male has no chance of escape. Think about it, isn't it lucky?
