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Courageous mantis males wrestle females to avoid being eaten - Daily Mail
Jan 20, 2021 1 min, 21 secs

New Zealand researchers looked at the mating behaviours of the highly cannibalistic springbok mantis (Miomantis caffra), a species of praying mantis.

Praying mantises have a reputation for cannibalism, because females often eat males before they get a chance to mate. .

60 per cent of sexual encounters between springbok mantises – which is one of nearly 2,000 mantis species across the globe – end in males being eaten.

'Males play Russian roulette whenever they encounter cannibalistic 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 by this form of coercion – physically fighting with females in order to successfully mate – and this is the first evidence of this behaviour in a cannibalistic mantis.

More than 60 per cent of sexual interactions end in males being consumed, mostly without mating

35 per cent of struggles resulted in the female grasping the male first, and all such struggles ended in cannibalism. 

Of these, 67 per cent ended in mating (half of which subsequently ended in cannibalism), 13 per cent ended in cannibalism without mating and 20 per cent ended in neither cannibalism nor mating. 

Researchers think the 'intimidatory and injurious nature' of male wrestling behaviour suggests it is a form of 'sexual coercion' by which males compel females to mate. 

In sexually cannibalistic insects where females consume males before, during or after mating, the greater burden of costs is borne by males. 

Therefore, male mating tactics are required that reduce the risk of cannibalistic attack. 

Rare examples of males mating coercively rather than cautiously can also be found in some sexually cannibalistic spiders

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