The praying mantis is an insect whose body shape and manners are very unusual. Its appearance resembles a praying person, due to which in Greece it received the name "priest", but such an appearance could not hide the cruel disposition of this insect. The female praying mantis is the most famous example of cannibalism among animals due to the habit of biting off a partner's head during mating. She can do this both during it and after.
According to most zoologists, this behavior is largely due to the fact that females thus not only supply their bodies with a sufficient amount of proteins required by them during pregnancy, but sometimes even deliberately provoke the release of semen by decapitating the partner.
Appearance
An adult female praying mantis is a rather graceful insect. In her appearance, the elongated gas wings of a light green hue and a thin waist stand out most of all. The head of the praying mantis ends with a pointed "beak", and due to its movable neck, it can rotate its head in any direction. In addition, it is the only insect that deliberately directs its gaze when examining the surroundings.
Mantis weapon
Despite the rather peaceful body structure, its front legs have deadly power. Their main purpose is to create a kind of trap for the intended victims. On their inner side, in close proximity to the body, there are beautiful black spots, each of which is decorated with a white eye inside and several rows of small ivory-colored spots that complement the decoration favorably.
The femur is rather long and resembles a spindle in appearance, the entire front part of which is equipped with a double row of sharp spines. The longer spines are black, and the shorter ones are green, making the mantis' thigh very similar in appearance to a saw.
The lower leg at the junction with the thigh is quite mobile. It also has thorns, although smaller, but rather densely located. At its end there is a powerful needle-shaped hook, on the lower part of which there is a groove with several curved blades.
When the female praying mantis is in a calm state, all the elements of her legs are bent in such a way that she takes on a very harmless appearance, however, as soon as a suitable prey appears nearby, her legs straighten forward and she clings to the prey with them, pulling it towards her. As a result of such a maneuver, the insect gets between four legs, crowned with rows of thorns. No matter how after this the insect resists, falling into a similar trap, it is doomed to death.
Features of hunting and food
During the hunt, the female praying mantis unfolds its wings to its full width. The end of the abdomen rises and falls with rather sharp movements. At this time, her body rests on four hind legs, as a result of which the insect keeps its entire long chest in an almost vertical state. The front legs are extended to their full length, exposing the armpits.
In a similar position, she motionlessly watches the approaching food, turning her head when it changes place. After the insect is captured, the female folds her wings, assumes her usual position and starts eating.
The beginning of the mating season
After the onset of warmth, all praying mantises lead a peaceful lifestyle, during which the females do not quarrel with each other, but this does not last long. The closer the mating period gets, the more aggressive they become. The increased work of the ovaries causes females to need to lay eggs, inspiring them with a strange desire to eat each other.
If the fight is to end only with scratches, then the front legs remain folded. At the first injury, one of the combatants admits to being defeated and leaves. However, quite often the denouement takes an extremely negative turn, as a result of which the opponents use their grasping legs during the fight. The winner devours the victim, starting from the back of the head.
After mating, the females of praying mantis again return to a calm state, in which they are throughout the year until the onset of cold weather.
Pair formation
In late August - early September, the male praying mantis, rather small and pitiful against the background of the female, is waiting for a favorable moment, periodically turning his neck towards his partner and protruding his chest. He approaches her and spreads his trembling wings. After his courtship is accepted, the couple part for a while, but within the next day the male is attacked by his girlfriend. The female praying mantis eats the male after mating, paralyzing him with a bite in the back of the head, and eats him in small pieces up to the wings.
Reproduction
During breeding, the male is on the back of the female, holding tightly to her with all paws. Sometimes the female bites off the male's head without even waiting for the completion of sexual intercourse. At this moment, the female praying mantis turns her head over her shoulder and begins to methodically devour her partner, while the remaining part of her body does not stop fulfilling its natural purpose. The male has no chance of salvation, since he is firmly restrained by the pins, with which he was initially attached to the female's body.
In addition, in some cases, the female praying mantis eats the male after mating, and eating males is observed in almost all members of the mantis family. Even the female of the tiny, colorless mantis begins to eat the male with the same spontaneity as the female of the common mantis.
Causes of aggressive behavior
Scientists have never come to a consensus as to why female praying mantis eat the male after mating, but they put forward several main hypotheses of what is happening. The first and most common of them is that in this way they strive to make up for the lack of natural protein that they need for full-fledged bearing of offspring. The second version is that females thus stimulate the production of sperm in the partner.
Mantis insect- one of the most unusual and complete oddities in the entire earth of creatures. His habits, lifestyle, as well as some moments in the behavior of many people can simply shock you. This applies to their marriage habits, during which female praying mantis eats cavalier.
Much is mentioned about the praying mantis in mythological works because he is really interesting in all respects and among other insects he probably simply has no equal.
It instills fear in the impressionable. These are very close to cockroaches and are essentially predators. Their most unusual feature is the front limbs, which have a somewhat unusual structure. They are decorated with strong spikes that help to grab the victim without any problems.
They are bred by people in terrariums because they are very interesting to observe from the side. In the natural environment, it is not easy to follow them - praying mantises are excellent at disguising themselves, their appearance helps a lot in this. For a long time, they can simply freeze in one position, which makes them even more invisible.
This was the name of the insect in the 18th century by the Swedish naturalist Karl Liney. This creature, when it is in ambush and watches over its future victim, becomes in a pose similar to that in which a person prays, hence its strange name.
Not in all countries the insect is called that. The Spaniards, for example, called it the devil's horse or simply death. These unpleasant and creepy names came to him because of his equally creepy habits.
Praying mantis is a predatory insect a ruthless and gluttonous creature that, knowing its incredible strength and power, can slowly deal with the victim, getting pleasure from it. For people engaged in agricultural work, it serves as an excellent helper in helping to cope with pests.
Features and habitat
From the description of the mantis insect, it is known that this is a rather rather large creature from the genus of praying mantis. The female is always larger than the male. Her body length is about 7.5 cm. Male praying mantis 2 cm less.
There are giants among them, reaching a length of up to 18 cm.There are also very tiny these creatures, no more than 1 cm. Mantis-like insects - these are grasshoppers and cockroaches. But these are only external similarities. Otherwise, they are completely different.
The main weapon and main organ of the insect are the front limbs, with which the praying mantis grabs food. In addition, with the help of the front limbs, the mantis can move quickly.
The hind limbs are designed purely for movement. Insects have wings. Only males use them mainly because females, having large dimensions, fly extremely rarely.
The head of the praying mantis is in the form of a triangle. She is movably connected with his body. He turns his head in different directions and can see over his shoulder without any problems. Which helps him to prematurely notice the approaching enemies.
The belly of the insect resembles an egg and is long. It is soft, consisting of 10 segments, on the last of which is the organ of smell of insects. Moreover, in females it is much better developed. The insect has only one ear. Regardless of this, his hearing is perfect.
Its large and bulging eyes stand out against the background of the triangular head, this is clearly visible on photo of praying mantis... In addition to them, there are three more small eyes, they are located in the antennae area. Antennae of insects are of several types - in the form of threads, combs and feathers.
In the appearance of an insect, there can be a variety of shades - yellow, gray, dark brown. It depends on the environment. Very often, an immobile mantis merges perfectly with nature. So that it is simply impossible to notice it. This disguise is necessary for him in order to watch the victim without problems.
You can meet these insects in almost all corners of the earth's planet. The climate of the tropics and subtropics is perfect for them. Praying mantises love humid forests and rocky desert areas.
They feel comfortable in the steppes and meadows. They prefer to lead a sedentary lifestyle. If everything is in order with food in one place, then they can forever remain in this territory.
The active movement of insects is noticed when they mate. The reason for this may be an insufficient amount of food or the presence of those living creatures that are enemies of praying mantises. These include, chameleons,.
Character and lifestyle
All species of praying mantis prefer to lead a daytime life. They have many enemies in nature, from which they prefer not to flee or hide. They simply turn to face the enemy, spread their wings and start screaming loudly. At the same time, the sounds are really threatening, even people are afraid of them.
Why do females eat their partners? The answer to this question has long been found. The fact is that during mating, the female can simply get carried away with the process or confuse the male with some of her prey.
The time of bearing eggs is typical for females in that they have a great appetite. Their body is in a panic shortage of protein, which females take from the most unusual sources, sometimes eating their own kind.
Mating of insects begins with the simple dance of the male. In the process, he releases an odorous substance that helps to convey to the female that he is of her kind.
It mostly helps, but since mantises are cannibals, it doesn't always work. The female bites off the head of her cavalier, and then she is simply not able to stop, absorbing everything with great pleasure.
These predators have amazing agility. After sitting in ambush for a long time, they can make a sharp jump towards their prey and in a matter of seconds dig into it with their pincers. In a jump, they are excellent at controlling their body, which is another distinctive a sign of praying mantises.
Praying mantis
A great variety prevails in the diet of this insect. The age category of praying mantises, their parameters and stages of development adjust the needs for a particular food.
For young insects, it is enough to have a snack on flies. At an older age, a praying mantis will not be full of a fly. He needs larger and more substantial food. In the course are frogs, scorpions,.
It is still difficult for researchers to observe the hunting of praying mantises in the wild. Especially for the victims who are larger than themselves. In frequent cases, relatives are their favorite delicacy.
As already mentioned, females eat their males during mating. Males always face a choice - to mate and continue their race or to be eaten by their soul mate. If the female has a good snack before mating, the male has a lot of chances to stay alive.
Praying mantises will never eat carrion. Their victim must necessarily resist them, only after that they can slowly and slowly end it. This is where their predatory disposition is manifested.
Reproduction and life expectancy
Mating mantises ends with the fact that the females lay several tens or hundreds of eggs in specially constructed protein bags by them, depending on the type of insects.
All of this is going on in an interesting way. The cameras are located on a tree. The female lays one egg in each cell. Time passes and the protein bags freeze, protecting the eggs inside them from external factors and enemies.
There is only one hole in this structure, it is through it that insect larvae are selected. Outwardly, they are very similar to adults, only they do not have wings. These amazing animals live for about six months.
1. After mating, the male ribbon snake seals the female's genital opening with secretions from its kidneys. Such a seal serves as a kind of "chastity belt" that prevents mating from the side of other males and guarantees fertilization from the side of the first male who approached the female.
2. The male of Darwin's rinoderma, a frog that lives along the southern coast of Chile, after fertilizing the eggs, swallows it and keeps it in his voice sac. When the tadpoles grow up, it opens its mouth and releases them outside.
3. The seahorse is the only animal species whose males become pregnant and give birth. During the breeding season, the female seahorse swims up to the male and, with the help of a nipple-like appendage, introduces the eggs into a special chamber in the form of a bag on the male's belly. The male then fertilizes them and for some time carries the little seahorses on his belly.
4. In the Mozambican catfish, the fertilization process takes place in the female's mouth. After laying the eggs, she turns to swallow them. Here a male swims up to her, the spots on the anal fin of which are very similar to eggs. The female, bewildered, opens her mouth to swallow these eggs too, and then the male will excrete sperm, fertilizing the eggs already in the female's mouth. There the fry develop until they grow up. Even after small fish begin to search for food on their own, at the slightest danger they rush to a safe shelter - the mouth of their mother.
5. The female bed bug does not have a mating hole, and the males have to drill it on their own with their curved and pointed penis. Then he injects sperm into the female, which (with a lack of blood) the female sometimes also feeds on.
6. During mating, the female praying mantis eats its partner. While copulation lasts, the larger female holds the male with her forepaws and begins to devour his head. The male's sexual desire is so great that he does not stop mating, even when he is in danger. Some scientists believe that the eating process even increases the male's sexual desire.
7. The male acarimorphic tick is born as a fully formed insect and helps his mother during childbirth, acting like a midwife. With his hind legs, he grabs his sisters emerging from the genital opening and pulls them out. Even stranger, he copulates with them and continues to be nearby, ready at any time to come to his mother's aid again.
8. The legs of the male water mite sometimes serve as additional genital organs, with which it penetrates the female. During mating, he presses the female to the ground so tightly with tiny hooks that she can hardly move. At the same time, he also sticks to her with the help of a special substance, so that she can no longer get away from him.
9. Marsup marsupial mouse is an Australian marsupial similar to ordinary mice, the only one among all mammals that dies after mating. During the breeding season, males are exclusively engaged in mating until they literally drop dead. Most of them die of hunger, because they do not find time to look for food or devour it.
10. The male tick does not have a genital organ, and it inserts its nose into the female's genital opening. Expanding it enough, he turns his backside and exudes sperm from his rear opening. Then he turns again and again pushes the sperm deeper with his nose.
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Female praying mantis have a killing habit and eat their mates during mating. For what? Fascinating new research shows that this sacrifice gives males an excellent reproductive advantage.
Cannibalism among praying mantises is well documented, and scientists are discussing the reasons for this phenomenon. New research shows that females who eat their partners after mating produce more eggs than those who do not. Moreover, by eating the male, the widow ensures that he will provide food for the offspring after death.
About 25 percent of all collisions result in the death of the male.
A female praying mantis usually begins by biting off her mate's head.
Incredibly, this is 63 percent. Scientists have suggested that she manages to stock up on food at a critical moment in the reproductive life cycle, but the fact remains unproven.
To be sure, the researchers embedded traceable radioactive amino acids into crickets that were eaten by males. Then each of them mated with a female praying mantis. Half of them were saved from the duplicity of their mistress, and the other half ... well, you know what happened to the other half. The researchers then set out to study the reproductive success of each female.
Study
By following the flow of radioactive proteins through their bodies, the scientists tracked the contribution of the recently eaten male. Males that were eaten transferred nearly 90 percent of their labeled amino acids, while survivors transferred approximately 25 percent via ejaculate.
A significant part of the amino acids was transferred to the babies, which means that they are not completely metabolized by the female. It turns out that in addition to ejaculate, body tissue is used to produce eggs. Praying mantis after death - provides food for its offspring.
Mantis females that ate their partners produced more eggs than those who did not. On average, cannibals produced about 88 eggs, those who did not eat about 37 eggs. This is a big difference, which gives eaten males an excellent reproductive advantage.
Interesting and rare insects are praying mantises. Many articles have been written about their lives, and the behavior of females is controversial among scientists.
Some breed them at home, others do not distinguish them from grasshoppers. Read on to learn how to tell the difference between a female praying mantis and why she eats a male's head.
From the photo, you can really understand that the insect is very similar to a grasshopper, however, in size, a praying mantis can reach almost 18 cm, depending on the species and place of residence.
Insects live on the territory of Africa, it is in that area that the "grasshopper" grows of this size.
Important! The representative of the family differs from fellow locusts in the ability to turn its head around its axis.
Of the anatomical features, the insect has only one ear, but, despite the vicissitudes of nature, the hearing is excellent.
At home in a terrarium, a praying mantis can live for about 2-3 months. Some species can live for about a year.
But most of all, people are interested in unusual reproduction. But what does the female look like and how does it differ from the male representative?
Read about all the features in the table:
| Criterion for comparison | Female | Male |
| The size | The female will be several centimeters larger. | Reaches about 5 cm in length when the female is 7-8 cm in length |
| Legs length | Short, up to 1.5 cm | Long - about 2 cm |
| Coloration | Swamp female with patterns on the back | Bright color that attracts attention |
| Wings | Approximately the same size, but females do not use them, as they are too heavy | Same as female representatives, only males can fly |
| Antennae | Short, sometimes absent | Long |
| Power features | May eat other insects, including males | They eat small flies, mosquitoes and midges |
| Behavior | Headless females are aggressive and can often attack large animals. In some cases, a large female praying mantis can defeat a mouse. | They are cowardly, often hide and run away in case of danger. |
Important! Praying mantises are beneficial insects. They eat flies, midges and ants, exterminating the number of useless bites. However, large species can feed on bees.
The easiest way to identify a female is by its larger size. The female's belly is thick, adapted for procreation.
Also, insects have lobes on the belly: the female has 6, and the male has 8 parts.
Why and why does the female eat the head of the praying mantis after mating
Scientists and naturalists are still arguing about why the process of tearing off the head from a male representative occurs.
Someone believes that the male is not capable of ejaculation if he has a head on his shoulders, but there are other options:
- Protects future offspring. The female lays eggs after a short time, and the male representative can destroy her children. Thus, the insect protects its larvae.
- Stocked up with nutrients. Now the woman will not have time to look for food, so she eats "in reserve". This way, she will have enough protein in her body to lay eggs.
- Provokes ejaculation. After the head is torn off, the sperm gets deeper, improving fertilization.
Important! Sometimes the male can stay alive.
But cunning males know about the intentions of the female, so they try to carefully sneak up on her.
Some gentlemen may be motionless behind her, waiting for her to start a meal to begin mating. The headless mantis remains in 50% of cases.
Why did the female rip her head off herself
In fact, females kill and eat only males half the time.
There are some witnesses who saw how, after mating, the mantis was able to escape, and she tore off her head by herself. Such cases can indeed be, but in rare cases.
From this was born the famous Internet joke:
“Today I saw the mating mantis. I stopped, watched what was happening and managed to grab the male before his head was bitten off. The female looked at me, and then took and tore off her head. Itself. To yourself. Head. Women ".
Reproduction and breeding at home
Despite the stereotype, the mating season for insects begins not in spring, but in autumn. The male half begins to strenuously search for females in order to continue their genus.
Interestingly, the males know about the intentions of the female side, but they are still looking for a way to have sexual intercourse.
Important! The mating process of a praying mantis lasts about 3 hours.
The young male, discarding caution, attracts the individual with his color and special mating dance. After ejaculation, the male can leave if he has time.
At home, you can extend the life of one species up to 1.5 years, if you do not forget to feed and care for them.
Even after the death of her betrothed, the bride can continue to lay eggs. At a time, she can demolish 50 pieces.
At home, the death of the male can be prevented by controlling the capture of the female.
For breeding, follow the instructions:
- Choose any time. Insects can breed at home any time of the year. Most likely, there will be many offspring, therefore, so that individuals do not die, it is better to do this in the warm season.
- Bring the female to the groom, you can observe the process of approaching and mating. To prevent the woman from breaking her lover's neck, control the distance between the mantises from above.
- The first eggs will appear in a few days. After maturation, larvae emerge from them, which can eat each other. It is best to always feed the little praying mantises so as not to reduce the population.
- Divide or sell the grown insects. Release those that do not fit in the terrarium.
Breeding praying mantises is not the most pleasant process, since a person will sometimes have to open the shell of eggs and take out the larvae. Dozens of adults can be raised within a month.
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