Why do praying mantis eat their mates?

Just watching a female praying mantis eating a male. For an hour or so they have been joined, all the time, with the male having had his head bitten off, amazing! The male would be about one third the size of the female. read more

This claim is not without any merit, as female praying mantids often decapitate and ingest the heads of their mates after copulation, phenomenon biologists refer to as “sexual cannibalism“: Sexual cannibalism refers to females killing and consuming their male partner at some stage during courtship and mating. read more

A fascinating new study shows this sacrifice is actually giving the males a distinct reproductive advantage. read more