Everyone must be impressed by a scene in the animation "Black Cat Sheriff": on the wedding night, the female mantis actually ate the male mantis in order to supplement the pre-pregnancy nutrition, and later after the black cat sheriff investigated the case, it was concluded that it was the nature of the praying mantis, and finally chose to forgive it.
So it's terrible for a praying mantis to find a partner, right? I thought that I had already embraced the beauty, but it turned out to be the soul of "peony flowers die". In order to reproduce the next generation, is "eating the spouse" really a necessary part of the candle night in the cave house? Are male praying mantises really willing to give their lives?
First of all, praying mantises are widely predatory predators, basically no living creature will refuse, as long as it can be caught. Whether it is insects, spiders, frogs, lizards, rats or birds, they are all in the hunting records of praying mantises. Male praying mantises can also be regarded as a good meal for females. In order to find the answer to the question of why female praying mantises eat males, researchers have long done the following control experiments:
In a study of the axe mantis, the experimenter divided the females into three groups and fed them to control their nutritional status.
The results show that the weight of the mantis (mantis egg mass) produced by malnourished females is greatly reduced; if these wolf-like female mantises eat their mates, their mantis weight can be significantly improved. The researchers did not analyze the effects of pampered females eating their offspring, but their experimental records may reveal why the experiment was not conducted — well-bred and well-fed female praying mantises did not eat their mates at all.
For another type of praying mantis, the Mediterranean rainbow mantis, the study directly compared the females who ate their mates with those who did not eat mates, and came up with another result: the female mantises that ate their mates did not lay more eggs.
Bright-eyed mantis
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So to sum up, hunger is the primary factor Wow! For the hungry female praying mantis, it is really to be able to eat enough and the six relatives do not recognize... However, this situation is not common.
Do male mantises really have such a broad mind that they are willing to sacrifice themselves in order to reproduce?
Male praying mantises approach females with special caution and quietly approach from behind. When almost within the female's sniper range, she will find the opportunity to jump on the female mantis's back in one breath. If the male mantis in the tail row is noticed by the other party, they will often flee into the wilderness.
Of course, males will still try to avoid being eaten by females. The phenomenon of "sexual eating" is basically concentrated in the large, strong and fierce praying mantises such as axe mantises, knife mantises, and thin-winged mantises; they are more common and have a relatively high chance of eating their mates.
Due to their violent female personality, the male can not withstand the attack of the "savage girlfriend", and the chance of death is naturally higher.
Fierce knife mantis
The chance of the thin-winged mantis eating its mate in the wild is about 31%, while the male of the Chinese great knife mantis has a 17% chance of dying in the wild. It can be seen that even in the face of the most dangerous target, under natural conditions, the male can still retreat most of the time. Animals have the instinct to save their lives, and it is not worth it to lose their lives in order to spend the spring supper with females!
Fairy-like orchid mantis
In fact, as long as the female praying mantis is usually full, nothing will happen. Well-nourished female praying mantises are not only more polite to their mates, but also more attractive in the eyes of males.
Arizona mantises are a common species in the southwestern United States, and researchers have found that females of these mantises are much more likely to attack males when they are hungry. As a result, their males not only tend to pursue enough females, but also the mating activities recorded in the wild occur in the month when females have the most adequate nutrient accumulation. Other studies have shown that well-nourished female praying mantises release pheromones that are more attractive to males.
Incidentally, the Black Widow spider also has the habit of "eating the same kind", so the male spider came up with a cunning strategy - mating with females who have not yet matured to the stage of "sexual eaters" to avoid the fate of being eaten.
In short, whether it is a kind of praying mantis, eating a spouse is not a necessary part of the wedding. Optimistically, it is just a failed blind date that is "less evenly matched". Think about whether this is also a wake-up call to human society?