A new study is wrestling with their female partner so they won’t be eaten, a new study reveals.
Researchers from New Zealand looked at the courtship behavior of the highly cannibalistic springbok mantis (Miomantis caffra), a genus of prayer mantis.
Prayer mantles have a reputation for cannibalism, as females often eat the males before they get mates.
But in this particular species, the male and female wrestle in a ‘violent struggle’ before breeding, as each partner tries to be the first to be caught. the other with his feet in front.
If the female wins, it almost certainly dies for the male, but if the male wins it will greatly increase the chances of successful breeding, often hurting the female in the process. .
Instead of avoiding cannibalism by being calm and careful, males can overcome the threat of cannibalism by ‘wrestling with a female’, the experts say.
60 percent of sexual encounters between springbok mats – one of nearly 2,000 species of mantis worldwide – end up in males eating them.
Amazing video footage showing the nobleman scratching with the biggest women inside cups in a lab.
Red arrow indicates abdominal injury healed on female springbok mantis after encounter with male
The study provides the first evidence of coercive mating in mantis.
‘Males play Russian roulette every time they meet cannibalistic females,’ said study author Dr Nathan Burke, an entomologist at the University of Auckland and an expert on mantis mating rituals.
‘Men rarely avoid cannibalism with this type of coercion – physically fighting with women to reproduce successfully – and this is the first evidence of this behavior. in cannibalistic mantis.
‘Sexual conflict in the insect world is less uncommon and usually prefers a cautious or ingenious approach.
‘But the springbok male mantis is indeed fighting to achieve its goal and this study shows that it may be the best choice for reproductive success.’
Male (top) female (bottom) Miomantis caffra combing in Auckland, New Zealand. The woman’s abdomen suddenly rises as she carries eggs since the previous courtship
The springbok mantis is native to South Africa, but is commonly found in New Zealand after being celebrated there in 1978.
For this study, researchers collected 52 pairs of springbok clothing and observed their behavior in the laboratory over a 24-hour period.
‘Everyone lived in individual parks and fed three to five houseflies (Musca domestica) three times a week,’ wrote Dr Burke and his co-author in Auckland, the Professor Gregory Holwell, in their paper.
‘For courtship tests, we paid adult males and females inside 700ml clear plastic cups and observed their behavior.’
They found that 29 out of the 52 pairs (56 percent) resulted in physical contact between the two sexes within the first 12 hours.
The male was always the first to make the call and he did so by jumping on the female while moving his wings quickly.
Almost all – 90 per cent – went up to physical exertion, which lasted, on average, 12.77 seconds.
Of these, 7 per cent caused a split without a winner.
Sample female Miomantis caffeine laying her eggs. The genus is a medium-sized mantid with one of the highest levels of pre-copulatory cannibalism. More than 60 percent of sexual interactions end with males eating them, mostly without breeding
35 percent of strife resulted in the woman grabbing the man first, and all such strife ended in cannibalism.
Males were the first to catch females in 58 percent of struggles.
Of these, 67 percent ended up breeding (half of these ended up in cannibalism), 13 percent ended up in cannibalism without coming together and 20 percent ended in cannibalism no mating.
On several occasions, women who lost the struggle tried to catch tied men but were unsuccessful.
Another unusual finding was that 27 percent of women who lost the stroke were injured by the man’s foretibial paws.
This resulted in abdominal puncture wounds that later formed black scabs – something that was also seen in women in the country.
Researchers believe that the ‘scary and hurtful nature’ of male sexual behavior suggests that it is a form of ‘sexual coercion’ by which men force women to generation.
‘We’ve learned a lot of interesting biology from Miomantis caffra over the last ten years, but this latest work is truly amazing,’ said Dr Holwell.
‘This is the best example out there of men fighting back to help tackle the threat of sexual cannibalism.’
The study was published in the journal Biology Letters.