For us humans, mating is often an act of pleasure, not giving birth to a child. Perhaps we will make love a thousand times in our lifetime, but as a result we will have too few children on a handful of fingers. This is perfectly normal for people who are social creatures. But would this be the case if we made love just like praying mantises?
Imagine you as a man start to have sex with your female partner. You normally enjoy this job a lot, but at this point your female partner has started to bite you in the head. When we look at it from this angle, we see that it is not a pleasant thing. This is a situation in which the mantis constantly lives. So what could be the reason for this? What is the main event behind this act of mating, in which males happily put their heads in the mouths of their females? Let’s look at the causes of cannibalism in praying mantis.
Why do female praying mantises eat males during mating?
Although mating is more of a social behavior for us humans, this is not true for all animals. The main purpose of mating in praying mantis is to produce new offspring. Of course, this doesn’t just require cannibalism, but research results show that females eating males while they’re already mating increases egg production.
Male praying mantises do this for their children, not for a masochistic moment of pleasure. Females that eat male mantises produce more eggs than those that do not. The females, who can fertilize more eggs with the sperm they get from the men’s body, also find the necessary food source for these eggs with the protein they get from here.
28 percent of males are eaten by females.
We can say that males are extremely self-sacrificing in praying mantises, which are sexually cannibalistic creatures. According to researches, 28 percent of male praying mantises are eaten by their wives. After mating, the female fertilizes the eggs she produces by storing the male’s sperm.
Actually, this has a downside. You defeated and died. After that, you will destroy all mating opportunities you will do. In fact, at some point that could mean more children. However, William Brown of the State University of New York, who is doing research on this subject, says that it comes at a cost. If the male can die there and increase the number of offspring the female gives birth to, at least according to the theory, this disadvantage can turn into an advantage.
A study to shed light on the logic of sexual cannibalism
A group of researchers in the USA and Australia, including William Brown, have investigated why praying mantises do this sexual cannibalism. published an illuminating study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In this study, the offspring production of females eating male praying mantises was examined.
In the first phase of the experiment, the team fed two different groups of crickets with amino acids, protein building blocks with two types of radioactive atoms. Later, the praying mantis, which were divided into two groups, were fed with these cricket groups. As a result, amino acids, which were somewhat labeled, were incorporated into the praying mantis’ bodies.
In the next step, male mantises were allowed to mate with females. Of the 21 pairs, 10 separated soon after mating, while the remaining females stayed together until the males were eaten. Females of this species see males as their greatest potential prey, according to Brown. So according to female praying mantis, males are a food source.
Researchers tracking radioactive atoms found that female praying mantises that ate their males took up 89 percent of their mates’ amino acids. Female praying mantises, which did not kill their male in this sexual approach, were able to transfer a little more than 25 percent of the amino acids into their own bodies.
After these steps, the researchers analyzed the eggs, ovaries, and other reproductive tissue of mantis-eating praying mantises. Cannibal females had almost twice as many radioactive atoms as females who didn’t eat their mate, thanks to the levels of radioactive atoms from the males they happily ate. According to the results of the research, females use not only the sperm obtained as a result of the male’s ejaculation, but also their body tissues for the formation of eggs.
According to the results of the research, it was discovered that cannibalism increases the number of eggs. Females who did not eat their mates were able to fertilize an average of 37.5 eggs, while females who preferred cannibalism managed to fertilize an average of 88 eggs. This research also proves that the sacrifice that male praying mantises pay with their lives is an important step for the continuation of the lineage.
Today we have explained to you the reproductive ways of mantis, which is a kind of suicide mission for male individuals. So what are your thoughts on this? Let’s meet in the comments section.
Source: 1, 2, 3
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