Courageous mantis males wrestle females to avoid being eaten - Daily Mail

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.

'But the male springbok mantis really does fight to achieve his goal and this study shows that might be his best option in terms of reproductive success.' .

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. 

Examples of such strategies include males using stealth during mating approaches, courting females with a 'decoy nuptial gift', playing dead when females attack and preferentially mating with females that are feeding or moulting. 

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

These courting males immobilise females for mating by biting them, injecting them with venom, emitting airborne chemicals or tying them up with silk.