Praying mantis is infamous for cannibalism. They are often seen eating other praying mantes. They capture the other praying mantis with their sharp claws and powerful bites and then devour them. The females are much bigger than the males, and these female praying mantes tend to eat their mate after mating, but why do they do it?
Female Praying mantis kills their mate after mating because it increases their survivability and provides nutrition so that they can lay eggs. Upon research, it has been found that female that eats their mate tends to have much more babies compared to the one that doesn’t eat.
Praying Mantis Cannibalism
Praying mantis are a group of insects that are reported to be cannibalistic. Modern science has found that females that eat their mates have more eggs compared to the ones that don’t eat.
It is a part of their biology, increasing the chances of survivability for both the female and its babies. Instinctively, they eat their mate. The female praying mantis is much more giant than the male praying mantis.
After devouring, they get the nutrition from the male, thus increasing the survivability rate. This behavior is also seen in many other insects, and the praying mantis is one of them. The case of females eating male praying mantis is prevalent. However, the male usually doesn’t give away without a fight.
If they can escape during this fight, then they may get the chance to mate with another female, but it’s pretty difficult for the male to make it alive. Even if the male survives, it cannot go unscathed. This means that the praying mantis will be devoured sooner or later by other stronger, younger praying mantis.
Does Male Praying Mantis Know They Are Going to Die?
A male praying mantis is well aware that it will die; however, the instinct of reproduction is much greater than the fear of death.
As for the thinking process, praying mantis don’t have the developed brains to have complex thought forms; however, they instinctively know they will die. This reflects in their behaviour.
They approach the female very cautiously and try to avoid any confrontation. Sometimes though the female eats the male praying mantis without mating, if, for some reason, the male shows incapability, the female will immediately devour it without even mating. This is a complete loss of loss scenario for the male.
Often the male somewhat receives damage while competing with another male praying mantis for the female, which can lead to a performance issue in the male. A slight weakness means death. The male is aware of that instinctively and approaches the female very carefully.
Does Male Praying Mantis Willingly Sacrifice Themselves Without Fear?
Instinctively every insect or animal is scared of death and tries to avoid it. When the female praying mantis attacks the male, the male attempts to run away, but they are unsuccessful in most cases.
Exhausted after mating, these male praying mantis meets their terrible fate. First, the female eats off the male’s head as the most lethal part. She then gradually devours everything, thus getting the required nourishment.
The male praying mantis often fights with another male to get to the female. The battle is usually lethal; one gets severely injured or dies. After that, the victorious male praying mantis decides to mate with the female praying mantis.
This victorious praying mantis which is supposedly the fittest among the lot gets quickly devoured when the mating is finished. This signifies that mating is essential to their life, and the risk is worth dying. However, this behaviour ensures the survivability of their species, and their population continues to grow. It might be too harsh for us to understand or observe, but this helps them sustain.
Does Female Praying Mantis Ever Die?
A female praying mantis is much bigger than male praying mantis; as a result, in most cases, the male praying dies. However, if they don’t die during sexual encounters, they die while growing up. There are times when male praying mantis kills a female.
This happens when the female is smaller than the male praying mantis. In most cases, they are young, and that’s why they get eaten. Once the female grows up, it becomes challenging for males to eat them. However, big females can be killed by other females who are of equal or bigger size.
How Long Do Female Mantis Live?
On average, a small praying mantis will live up to 4 to 8 weeks, but the bigger species may live up to six months. This lifespan can vary depending upon the environment they live in and the threat they face.
This is an average lifespan which happens when the praying mantis is able to keep itself safe from any threat. Unfortunately, there are many threats to a praying mantis. There are bigger animals, bigger mantis, birds etc., who eats praying mantis.
They are undoubtedly skillful predators but don’t stand a chance against bigger birds or animals. Praying mantis has developed great art of hiding. They use their skin colors to blend with the environment. They use that to hunt or to hide from other predators.
Humans are also a big threat to praying mantis. The problem with praying mantis is that if their number grows way too much, they can disturb the ecology of the environment. Since they are skillful predators and hunt various animals, they topple up the ecosystem.
When that happens, humans have to intervene to protect their crops, fruits, and the chemical they use can significantly lower their number. Their art of hiding becomes meaningless when they are exposed to these chemicals. This can substantially reduce their lifespan. So the environment they live in can certainly interfere with their lifespan.
The Benefits Of Eating Their Male Counterpart
After research, it has been found that the females who eat the male produce more eggs than those who don’t. The female stores the male sperm for fertilizing their eggs, which helps them deliver more babies. However, suppose the female decides to keep the male alive.
In that case, that particular female may not have too many babies, but the male might get the chance to mate with other females and grow their population. That’s why the male tries to escape after mating, but they are not always successful.
Does Female Praying Mantis Have Multiple Partner Or Single Partner?
Females can have multiple partners but choose one partner and fertilize their eggs each time. During their lifetime, they can have multiple partners. In most cases, the previous male may not be alive to mate with the same female twice. It has also been observed that the child of the female praying mantis can also eat their mother once they become an adult.
In the praying mantis world, the bigger the mantis is, the more food it gets and the less it gets hunted. During the growing process, there are lots of threats that a praying mantis needs to deal with, and they often die. Only a handful of praying survives to see their adulthood. So the female needs to lay lots of eggs to increase her survivability; for that, they can Sacrifice anything.
Do Praying Mantis Eat Their Baby?
To increase the survivability of their strong babies, the female may feed some of the smaller and weaker babies to the stronger ones. As a result, the ratio is much lower as the female’s primary goal is to increase their babies’ survivability as much as possible.
The female mantis also aggressively protects their baby and teaches them various skills. The female mantis stays by the side unless the babies learn to hunt for themselves. The parental instinct can be found in many animals and insects. Their brains may not be evolved to understand emotions. Still, their survival instinct shows them the right way to grow their population.
What To Do If Your Pet Praying Mantis Tries To Eat Its Mate?
As mentioned earlier, praying mantis eating their mate is very common. If you have a pet praying mantis, then your female praying mantis can try to eat your male counterpart. If you want to stop it from happening, you need to do something special before the female ends up eating your male praying mantis.
First, you can use a deterrent to distract the female praying mantis. Here is the list of some easy deterrents that you can use to keep the female praying mantis from eating the male praying mantis.
- Water: A simple, readily available solution is to spray water over the female praying mantis using a sprayer to distract her from eating its mate.
- Neem Oil: Neem oil is a very effective remedy to stop the female from eating its mate. You must mix the neem oil in water, put it in a sprayer, and spray it on the praying mantis once the mating process is finished.
- Use Gloves: You can wear gloves and pull the male praying mantis out of the place once they have done mating. Always wear gloves as the female praying mantis can be very aggressive during this time.
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