Reader Doris Fromage sent an iconic picture: a female praying mantis in copula with a male whose head she’s bitten off (notice the size disparity):
Here’s a close-up of the mating mantises (Stagmomantis californica, the California mantis). She’s a good 2 inches long – a nice large specimen. By the time I realized she was copulating, she’d already removed her suitor’s head and thorax, as you can see. There’s an old joke related to just this situation, that “with neither head nor heart, a male can still provide everything a female needs” or something to that effect, but it’s pretty misogynist 😀 I had heard of female praying mantises removing their mates’ heads during copulation, but I’d never actually *seen* evidence of it myself, that the male’s abdomen continues copulating without the head. In this case, minus head AND thorax, the male abdomen remained in position on the female’s back for more than 6 hours after I first saw it in this condition.
Here’s a video of another species of mantid eating its mate, one before and one after the mating. TRIGGER WARNING: Graphic sexual violence. Now presumably it’s not in the male’s interest to allow this, as he could find another mate afterwards and leave more offspring. But it would be in his interest under one condition: by sacrificing himself to the female as a meal, he’ll leave more genes than if he ran away and tried to mate again. This is possible, for a well-nourished female may leave substantially more offspring than one who doesn’t consume her partner: more offspring than necessary to make up for any extra offspring the male may have by absconding. But it could just be that the female has won against the male’s interest in an inter-sexual “arms race”.
Now I’m in Sweden and don’t have time to look this up, but presumably there are some experimental data to test this idea: for example, how many fewer offspring a female might have if the male is removed after copulation but before he’s eaten. Readers who know the relevant data are invited to weigh in below.
Reader Jerry Piven sent a photo of an iconic Japanese spider that’s now invaded the U.S.:
Just because you seem to have an interest in these images, here’s one I took in Kyoto a few years ago while walking through some forest paths lined with bamboo groves….I believe it’s a jorogumo (a whore spider), more scientifically termed the Nephila clavata…. The jorogumo takes its name from folklore, where venomous monsters transform into seductive women before preying upon poisoned men. (A fairly pervasive theme….)
The one in the leaves is probably of questionable quality since it was poor light, far away & hand held while I was standing on my tip toes, but it’s still cute. I noticed a chipmunk under the leaves & went to get my camera to take the picture.
The next two are of two separate chipmunk on the opposite side of the deck, both chipping an alarm call. They do this often but I can’t see any impending danger. There was a chipmunk out front also making the chipmunk alarm call. Even today, one of them made the sound for at least 30 minutes straight and I saw nothing around that looked dangerous to the chipmunk.
This little falcon has been hanging around my bird feeders trying to score.
Great photos.
Stephen, amazing shot of the kestrel. How close was it? What lens?
Cheers,
It’s in a 40′ spruce in my yard. The lens is 700mm, full frame. I took three more photos of it on the same perch yesterday, in dramatic evening light, and sent them to Jerry.
Thanks! Lovely stuff. Sweet that it comes so close. “Ours” in WA only get within a few hundred feet at best.
Very cool. I used to mate Carolina mantises, and had never seen cannibalism.
Probably because you are too big for them to eat.
RofL!
What an image!
I wonder if the male mantis doesn’t feel the decapitation as painful but instead pleasurable under these circumstances. Of course, that would mean we’d need to understand how pain feels to mantids.
Observations in other arthropods suggest that they (arthropods) do feel pain as a negative stimulus, and they react strongly to it and have elevated metabolism when injured, like mammals do.
But do they feel painful experiences with features that we would call suffering? Psychological shock and despair? I personally doubt they have the neurons to have a sense of self where such things are possible.
Even if it were pleasurable, the male couldn’t possibly know that from prior personal experience. So that’s not the reason they put themselves in that situation. Nor would there be much selective advantage to experiencing the decapitation as pleasant.
It’s possible that natural selection has instilled in males a craving for decapitation that drives them to seek it out. But that’s a separate question from what it actually feels like when it happens.
But even if they’ve had no prior decapitation experience, you’d think if it hurt, they’d stop it from happening.
The feedback loop is broken.
One more evidence that bad things happen when one thinks with their genital and not their brain.
Ha ha. It could be an after school special.
She’s bigger & stronger than he is.
Reminds me of a cartoon I either posted on Facebook or Tw**ted recently: a male and female preying mantis lying in bed after sex. The male is headless, but still managing to think, “Worth it!”
I saw a carton where the male has no head and a female asks if he has been cheating.
Lol! 😀
This is the one I was remembering.
http://www.ravishly.com/sites/default/files/praying%20matis.gif
It’s about time I did something about sorting it so I can put pics in WordPress comments. It’s always better when you can see these things. 🙂
As the film points out, the cannibalism is an adaptation to provide the female nourishment which benefits both by increasing her chances of success with the eggs. Makes a lot of sense. I wonder why this is not more common in the insect world.
It is more common among spiders, and in the Australian red-backed spider (a relative of the black widow), sexual cannibalism appears to be in the male’s interest. I suspect it varies among species. One study suggests that male mantids are more cautious or wary if the female is perceived to be hungry, and the authors suggest that males actively try to avoid being eaten. It is hard to get good data on an average male’s chances for re-mating.
Definitely a short term disadvantage for the male…to be consumed. I think I’d keep my eye on the nearest escape window, myself. But, even if the male escapes, his potential descendants would be jeopardized if the female has a hard time finding dinner.
Whenever I hear a chipmunk making an alarm call I assume he’s talking about me.
Anthropochimpism?
Technical quibble: the male mantis is missing only 1/3 of his thorax, his prothorax, and retains the two posterior segments.
The female is showing a great deal of restraint.
Or maybe just getting rid of the only parts he can fight back with.
I am ded of chipmunk kyootness!!
Great pics all!
Superb pictures!
I can’t help but thinking that the kestrel is looking at the bird feeder and thinking, “buffet”.
Ah, nothing like a nice macabre mating story with pics. I’m reminded of the great lengths tarantula keepers have to go to in order to protect some of their males from being consumed by the female. Somehow I never wanted to end up between a ravening female Theraphosid and her dinner.
Love the pictorial variety today, contributors! Nice assortment of eaters and actual or potential eatees.
Thanks for the great assortment today. Fun stuff. The chippy in the flowers sure is cute…though it looks quite scared.
Yeah his eyes were really wide. No idea what freaked him out.
I think the one you call “questionable quality” is my favorite!
“Even today, one of them made the sound for at least 30 minutes straight and I saw nothing around that looked dangerous to the chipmunk.”
They divined that PCCE was going to follow their pics here with a raptor!
Or maybe they were announcing Jerry’s emeritus status. It’s like the Canadian version of MacBeth and so the characters are all nice too.