Mantis males must wrestle if they don't want to lose their heads

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-01-20 11:01

Australia; New Zealand; NSW

Single_image_of_female_wounds © Dr Nathan W Burke

The praying mantis has a reputation for cannibalism because females often eat males before they get a chance to mate, but it turns out that for one species, the Springbok mantis, the boys may have a way to escape this deadly love. Australian researchers have shown that before mating, the male and female Springbok mantis wrestle in a violent struggle as each partner tries to be the first to grasp hold of the other with their front legs. If the female wins it spells almost certain death for the male, but if the male wins - they dramatically increase their chances of mating successfully, often injuring the females in the process. The researchers say this shows that rather than avoiding cannabilism by being timid and cautious, males can overcome the threat of cannibalism by coercively wrestling females.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Male coercion and female injury in a sexually cannibalistic mantis

Sexual cannibalism is the notorious tendency of females to eat their mates before, during or after mating. Males typically respond to the threat of cannibalism by approaching aggressive females carefully and cautiously. Rarely do males avoid cannibalism by coercing or intimidating females to mate. Here, we report the first evidence of coercive mating behaviour in a cannibalistic mantis. We show that males of the Springbok mantis, Miomantis caffra, defend themselves against cannibalism and greatly increase their likelihood of mating by engaging in violent wrestling bouts with females, sometimes wounding them in the process.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Biology Letters

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Auckland, The University of New South Wales

Funder: This research was funded by a University of Auckland Faculty Research and Development Fund (FRDF) grant to G.I.H.

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