Science
How some male mantises avoid getting their heads chopped off after sex – ZME Science
Males employ sexual coercion in order to quickly mate and flee the scene in one piece.
A female mantis with an abdominal wound from wrestling with a horny male. Credit: Biology Letters, Nathan Burke.
Mantises are famous in the animal kingdom for their extreme sexual cannibalism. If given the chance, females will often bite off the heads and eat other body parts of the male that they mate with. In the process, they acquire important nutrients that are incorporated into the eggs, thereby improving the odds that a male passes his genes — so not a totally unfair bargain. But some crafty…
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