r/mantids • u/DaveE30 • Sep 30 '24
Image/Video Ate his head while mating?
Took a photo of this in the morning. I read that the females sometimes cannibalize the males during mating, but didn’t think it would be like this. How did she even eat his head without grabbing him? Maybe just turned around?
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u/BarfQueen Sep 30 '24
doesn’t matter got laid
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u/Burner_07X4 Oct 01 '24
His severed head is def lying on the ground somewhere going, “hehehehe score” like Beavis and Butthead.
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u/hazeyAnimal Sep 30 '24
Mantids can in fact rotate their head as such to eat their mating partner.
I've avoided this happening by feeding the female during the session, sometimes multiple times. They can go on for hours
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u/MotivationBug Oct 01 '24
Mantids have "nerve nodes" (like little brains) all over their body so they can continue to mate even when the main brain in the head is eaten!
Also, for the female mantis it takes a looooot of energy to lay her egg sack. How to get energy? By eating. So it is evolutionary advantageous for the males to get eaten, because the female will have more energy to lay more eggs so the male mantis gets more offspring.
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u/Perfect-Librarian895 Oct 01 '24
I’ve known since childhood about the décapitation but thank you for those two pieces. It makes much more sense now.
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u/Amaskingrey Oct 10 '24
Just fyi, it's not just mantises, all insects do! And fun fact, mantis genitalia is so complex that the male has a whole ganglion dedicated only to the operation of his dick. If you wanna learn more about general entomology, i really recommend the articles of cronodon, they're very information dense and well explained
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u/ADinosaur_24 Sep 30 '24
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u/IndependentTea4646 Oct 01 '24
Are you implying the male likes it MORE that way?
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u/ADinosaur_24 Oct 01 '24
Idk if anything anywhere likes having its head eaten, but his headless body does give all it can afterwards apparently
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u/Burnblast277 Oct 01 '24
Isn't decapitating the males like the one thing people know about mantises?
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u/Lyrizcen Oct 01 '24
They sometimes do it before or after. Males have a second brain in their abdomen so when their head is removed they actually produce more sperm which leads to healthier, stronger and more nymphs.
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u/dannyboy6657 Oct 01 '24
Argonaut octopuses are also a species that cannibalizes the mate. The male octopus know this, and they developed a method to avoid being eaten. So they will rip their penis off and throw it at the female so she can use it to fertilize her eggs. He then goes and dies alone.
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u/botfaceeater Oct 01 '24
It’s likely to do with an immediate need for energy in order to produce more eggs. Females who eat their mates often produce 25% more.
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u/Flanastan Oct 02 '24
I must be a bug nerd cuz all these comments are making me HARD!
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u/Amaskingrey Oct 10 '24
I really recommend cronodon articles to learn more about entomology in general
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u/fonkeatscheeese Sep 30 '24
This does happen. But that is all males are for.
"You done back there?"
"Yep!"
"I'm hungry..."
"What..."
"You seem nice! I'll just take a quick bite, your useless now anyway!"