Why does the female praying mantis kill the male. Ten types of animals with strange sexual behavior Which insect kills a partner after mating
It has long been believed that the female praying mantis eats her unlucky opponent for a reason. And how could it be otherwise? The female praying mantis is much larger and more aggressive than the male, and not without obvious pleasure, this fatal lady bites off the male's head at the time of mating.
Is this true? Let's figure it out.
First, let's look at what a praying mantis is. This thin, clumsy creature with a long body and paws can sit for hours without moving, until some careless midge falls into its field of vision.
The praying mantis is a predatory insect about 5 cm in size. Both pairs of wings are well developed, although he rarely uses them. In case of danger, the praying mantis spreads its bright wings like a peephole, like a butterfly, and assumes a threatening pose. In their appearance, they accurately imitate long green leaves, although in nature there are praying mantises not only green, but also yellow, brown and brown tones. More than 2000 species of praying mantis are known, which mainly live in the tropics and subtropics.
It is generally accepted that the praying mantis hides in the grass, but it can be found anywhere. There are praying mantises that live on trees and look no different from thin tree branches, there are insects that sit on flowers and look like outlandish creatures. The latter include the Indian flower mantis, which looks more like a butterfly with green and pink-brown wings, and the orchid mantis, which closely mimics an orchid flower.
If an ordinary praying mantis destroys harmful insects, flies, beetles and mosquitoes, then flower praying mantises are real pests. They hunt for bees, bumblebees and other small insects that come to feast on nectar.
Despite the fact that the praying mantis is thin and also slow by nature, his tactics of waiting bring great results. He sits for hours, frozen in a motionless pose, lifting up his front legs, the shins of which are embedded in the thighs and act like razor blades. He can sit like this for a very long time, until some careless midge or beetle falls into his paws. As soon as a suitable insect is nearby, it slowly creeps up to it and, throwing out its front legs, grabs the prey. When the insect is eaten, it again assumes the same position and waits for a new victim.
It is from this prayer posture that the praying mantis got its name. Translated from Greek, it means "prophet", from Latin - "religious". It was this posture that prompted Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish physician - the founder of a unified classification system for the plant and animal world, to give it such a name.
However, there is no secret in his posture. Raised paws help to quickly catch insects. In addition, praying mantises are terribly voracious. They eat everything from aphids to medium-sized beetles. During the year, the praying mantis eats a huge number of insects, and sometimes shows a tendency to cannibalism. Praying mantises become especially voracious during the mating season.
Praying mantis females are much larger than males and pose a real threat to them. Under the influence of sex hormones, praying mantises can show a tendency to cannibalism. Praying mantis females after mating or during it eat males with pleasure. Males approach the female always with the greatest caution, trying not to catch her eye.
The praying mantis is more likely to survive if the female has had a hearty meal and is busy eating the insect. Then the male has a great opportunity to hide after mating unnoticed. If this did not happen, then the female devours the male immediately after mating, eating his head with pleasure. It is hungry females that are more aggressive, but they are also more attractive to partners. Hungry females release more pheromones, which attracts as many males as possible to them. Although well-fed females are also popular, several individuals can fight for hungry ones at once.
Females kill males because they are driven by the instinct to take care of their offspring, the female is trying to provide them with the necessary nutrients. There is a version that the male unwittingly serves as a necessary source of protein. This theory is supported by the fact that well-fed females react sluggishly to males and do not always eat them after mating.
1. After mating, the male ribbon snake seals the female's genital opening with secretions from his kidneys. Such a seal serves as a kind of “chastity belt” that prevents mating from other males and guarantees fertilization from the side of the first male approaching the female.
2. The male Darwin's rhinoderm, a frog that lives along the southern coast of Chile, swallows the eggs after fertilization and keeps them in his vocal sac. When the tadpoles grow up, he opens his 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, injects the eggs into a special chamber in the form of a bag on the male's abdomen. Then the male fertilizes them and for some time bears small seahorses on his stomach.
4. In the Mozambican catfish, the process of fertilization occurs in the female's mouth. She lays her eggs and turns to swallow them. Then a male swims up to her, the spots on the anal fin of which are very similar to eggs. The female, confused, opens her mouth to swallow these eggs as well, and then the male will release sperm, fertilizing the eggs already in the female's mouth. There, the fry develop until they grow up. Even after the little fish begin to search for food on their own, at the slightest danger they rush to a reliable shelter - the mouth of their mother.
5. Female bed bugs do not have a mating hole, and the males have to drill through it themselves with their curved and sharp penis. Then he injects the sperm into the female, which (with a lack of blood) the female sometimes also feeds on.
6. During mating, the female praying mantis eats her partner. While copulation lasts, the larger female holds the male with her front paws 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 process of eating even enhances the male's sexual desire.
7. The male acarimorph mite is born as a fully formed insect and assists its mother in childbirth, acting like a midwife. With his hind legs, he grabs his sisters emerging from the genital opening and pulls them out. Even more strangely, he copulates with them and continues to be nearby, ready at any moment to again come to the aid of his mother.
8. The legs of the male water mite sometimes serve as additional sexual organs for him, with which he penetrates the female. During mating, he presses the female so tightly to the ground with tiny hooks that she barely moves. 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. The swamp marsupial mouse is an Australian marsupial animal similar to ordinary mice, the only one among all mammals that dies after mating. During the breeding season, males are exclusively busy mating until they literally drop dead. Most of them starve to death because they do not find time to look for food or eat it.
10. The male tick does not have a genital organ, and he inserts his nose into the genital opening of the female. Enlarging it enough, he turns his back and releases sperm from his anus. Then he turns again and again pushes the sperm deeper with his nose.
Children raised by animals
10 mysteries of the world that science has finally revealed 2500-year-old scientific secret: why we yawn Miracle China: peas that can suppress appetite for several days In Brazil, a live fish more than a meter long was pulled out of a patient The elusive Afghan "vampire deer"
Such love tragedies happen in the animal world that even Shakespeare never dreamed of...
It turns out that for many animals, love games end in death. Our selection presents shocking facts about this murderous love.
praying mantises
The male praying mantis literally loses his head from love. After intercourse, the female ruthlessly bites off her partner's head, and in some cases this happens even during intercourse. Such cruelty is explained by the need of the female for protein, which is necessary for the normal development of eggs and the hatching of healthy cubs. However, it is difficult to call this lady a good mother. As soon as they are born, her children are forced to flee from the bloodthirsty mother, otherwise they are destined for the fate of their father....
Spiders M. sociabilis
The male spider M. sociabilis dies right during mating, and his sexual organ remains in the body of the female and henceforth acts as a "chastity belt", preventing the lady from intercourse with other males.
marsupial mice
Male Australian marsupial mice do not live up to a year. They are born in the fall, and in the summer they already enter the "adult" life, which turns out to be very stormy and transient. Males seem to go off the rails: they strive to mate with the maximum number of females, and some pairs of sexual acts sometimes last for 12-14 hours. During this sex marathon, the male completely focuses on procreation and completely forgets about food and sleep. It is not surprising that after such frantic sexual adventures, the body of males is quickly depleted, and they all die very quickly.
Northern marsupial martens
Like marsupial mice, male marsupial martens mate to the point of exhaustion and die immediately after the end of the mating season. At the same time, they behave very aggressively with females and it happens that during love games they even kill them.
Spider "Black Widow"
The name of this poisonous spider speaks for itself. After mating, the female eats her smaller partner without regret. She does it simply because she wants to eat. Laboratory experiments have shown that if a female is well fed before a date, she will let her man go in peace.
Chameleon furcifer labordi
These chameleons from Madagascar live very short lives: they hatch from eggs in November, and by April they all die without exception. Scientists believe that the reason for such an early death is the rich and exhausting sex life of lizards. Males fight long battles for females, and during mating they are very aggressive. As a result of energetic love games, all lizards run out of steam very quickly and die long before their young hatch.
Ticks Acarophen mahunkai
Ticks of this species begin to mate with each other while still in the body of their mother. At one fine moment, it explodes, and all its offspring are released, but if the females have the opportunity to enjoy life, then their brothers die almost immediately, because they have already completed their main task...
Frogs Rhinella proboscidea
Frogs Rhinella proboscidea, living in South America, arrange bloody orgies during the mating season. Several males attack the female at once, wanting to fertilize her, and often trample to death. The "fun" continues even after the death of the frog. The fastest and most agile male grabs a dead frog, squeezes eggs out of it and fertilizes them. Scientifically, this monstrous action is called "functional necrophilia." At the same time, not only females, but also some males die in "love games".
Pacific salmon
Salmon fish die immediately after spawning. The long swim to the breeding grounds and the rivalry for females take away too much strength from them. After the females throw their eggs to the bottom, and the males fertilize them, almost all adults die. They just don't have the strength to go on.
bees
Already on the 7-10th day of her life, the queen bee goes on her first date, during which 6-8 drones immediately become her cavaliers. With all of them, the uterus mates right in the air, after which the males immediately die. During intercourse, part of the drone's penis remains in the body of the uterus, in connection with which the cavalier receives an injury incompatible with life.
Incredible Facts
Birth and death are a natural part of the life cycle, but some animals only reproduce once and leave this world. This phenomenon is known as semelparia.
It may sound crazy, but suicidal mating is quite common in some animals.
Sometimes the act of mating takes the life of an animal in the process or immediately after it. Such an act can last from several hours to a whole day.
Animal mating
1 Praying Mantises Bite Their Heads After Mating
© chengyuzheng / Getty Images
As you know, female praying mantises swallow the male's head during or after mating. However, not all females do this. In an experiment on 40 pairs of praying mantises, only one pair performed this ritual. The male can avoid the sad fate only by chance.
Sometimes the female praying mantis completely devours the male. Often they will bite off the male's head and then mate with the headless body. Although the act results in the death of the male, it provides the female with a greater chance of fertilization.
2. Chameleons of Madagascar live and die quickly after mating
© Stockbyte / Photo Images
Chameleons of the Furcifer labordi species, living in the dry forests of Madagascar, live only a year. They spend almost 8 months inside the egg, and after they hatch, they live 4-5 months, lay eggs and die immediately after the act of reproduction.
Males and females fight each other, and if this does not lead to death, aggression leads to the production of high levels of hormones, which kills them.
3. Northern marsupial martens live fiercely and die after mating
© Paul Hartley/Getty Images Pro
Northern marsupial martens have a relatively short life span of only 12 months as they mate to death. During the breeding season, the male travels far in search of a female. When they finally mate, they do so with as many females as possible in order to spread their genes.
The male is also very aggressive during breeding, scratching, biting and occasionally killing the female. Even if the male survives after a full day of mating, he can live from a few days to a week after that.
4 Elephant Seals Violently Compete And Crush The Female
© Kamchatka
Elephant seals are on the verge of extinction. These marine mammals migrate to the beach and breed in the winter. Males begin to fight for the best and largest territories, trying to suppress the weakest.
The ratio of males to females is usually 1 to 10, and dozens of females mate with the alpha male and give birth to offspring. Sometimes, when the male is enraged, he may bite the female and crush her to death. Low-flying planes can frighten the colony, and frightened animals run to the water, crushing the young.
animal breeding
5. Bees climax with an explosion
© Pakhnyushchyy / Getty Images Pro
The mating ritual of bees is quite interesting and shocking. After the colony is formed, the worker bees select the queen bee and defend it from rivals. As soon as the queen bee reaches maturity, she selects dozens of males from several thousand in the colony. But the selected males can hardly be called lucky, because during mating, the genitals of the drone explode, and he dies. The genitalia remain inside the queen bee and fertilize it.
After this ritual, the queen can lay up to 1500 eggs per day for 3 years.
6 Violent Mating Is Common In Squids
© Comstock Images / Photo Images
When the breeding season begins, males and females gather in one place. species squid Taningia danae they pierce the females with sharp hooks, and then put the seed appendages into the holes formed, fertilizing it.
Another kind of squid Onykia ingens releases sperm with tissue-dissolving enzymes through the skin of the female. Once a female is fertilized, she is capable of producing thousands of eggs at once. Baby squid begin to swim from birth and are able to protect themselves. At the same time, adults do not live long and usually die after breeding.
Source 7The male slender Brazilian opossum dies after mating, and the female after giving birth
© praisaeng / Getty Images
Mating is an important part of human and animal life, but few of them want to pass on their genes so badly that they practically die of starvation. A newly discovered species of opossum mates for 14 hours with as many females as possible.
During the breeding season, the male produces so much stress hormone in his body that his body practically shuts down. The male grabs any females that come across and mates until he dies.
8. Fence iguanas do not live long and die immediately after mating
© Vrabelpeter1 / Getty Images
Fence iguanas have a relatively short life span and reach maturity within 5 months of birth. After reaching maturity, they mate only once in their lifetime. After that, females live for about 2-3 months and die from natural causes. Males can outlive females by 7-8 months.
9. Bed bugs practice traumatic insemination.
© John-Reynolds/Getty Images Pro
In nature, mating is not always a pleasant and exciting process. Bed bugs are a great example of this, as they practice what is known as traumatic insemination.
Why does the female praying mantis kill the male? and got the best answer
Answer from Victoria[guru]
There are several opinions about female praying mantises eating males.
1. The female eats the male on purpose, eating the head, his movements become more frequent, thereby increasing the amount of sperm injected into the female. After all, the nerve nodes that are not in the head, but in the abdomen are responsible for reproduction. This opinion appeared in early studies of praying mantises.
2. Now this behavior is explained by the need for a large amount of protein for the development of eggs, females have to resort to this type of prey.
3. And the third version, where the praying mantis can stay alive if he is lucky. Seeing the female, the praying mantis slowly and carefully, often freezing for a long time, intermittently, with stops, approaches her. The female praying mantis may be busy catching or eating food. Noticing the movement, he turns his head towards the male.
In this case, the male can stand frozen for a very long time. Accordingly, the praying mantis tries to choose the safest path. He tries to approach from the back, since the approach from the side most often ends badly for him even before the start of sexual intercourse.
Having jumped on the back of the female, clasping her pectoral shield with his front paws, bending his end of the body under the body of the female, mating begins, which lasts a couple of hours. Then immediately leave the place of "love", avoiding the role of an appetizer after an orgy.
Death after passion is not an obligatory ritual of praying mantises.
Answer from Vlad karsten[active]
normal response
Answer from SIKKA[guru]
females, they are like that, they won’t kill, they will enslave so ...
Answer from Ўdita P[guru]
Viktor Danchev - RULIT))
Answer from Lagoon[guru]
Not only kills, but also eats. As a nutrient, but why does she need it further?
Answer from Lyokha Efimovsky[newbie]
to survive. these are the laws of nature.
Answer from Yörgey[guru]
One of the most famous features of the praying mantis is the devouring of the male by the female after, and sometimes even during, mating. The praying mantis is a very large predatory insect. The male can reach a length of 52 mm, and the female -75 mm. At the end of summer, mating games of praying mantises begin. During this period, cases of cannibalism were often seen between females.
According to many experts, the male praying mantis cannot copulate when he has a head, therefore, sexual intercourse in insects begins with the female tearing off his head. But most often the mating process occurs quite normally, and the female eats the male with appetite only after mating is completed, and then only in half the cases. In fact, the female eats the male because of the strong need for proteins in the early stages of egg development, writes
In other matters, after eating the male, the praying mantis itself also dies, immediately after laying eggs in a nest made by her of foamy mucus. Here is such a tragic fate, the reproduction of these insects. To give offspring, the couple is doomed to die.
- What honey products. Beekeeping products. Royal jelly, beeswax, bee pollen. The power of nature on guard of health
- What does it really mean if a man says he's bored?
- Online fortune-telling on coffee grounds with the interpretation of signs Fortune-telling on desire on coffee grounds
- Sofia Kalcheva - about Nikolai Baskov: He dressed me in a mini, and I burned with shame Sofia Kalcheva now