Many people believe mantids to be inherent sexual cannibals, but it's far less common than media makes it out to be, and a little more complicated than just "female mantis needs the food for the road."

Basically there are a few factors here, many species of mantids have vast dimorphism between genders, and often this means the females can be twice the size of the males or larger, in some species like phyllocrania paradoxa, the males and females are roughoy the same size (though the female is certainly bulkier) and cannibalism is much less common.

Cannibalism happens quite often in captivity because the male and female are placed into a smaller enclosure by the mantis breeder or researcher or documentarian etc. In order to get them to mate, this smaller enclosure and proximity to a decently sized insect (the male) stresses the female out.

In the wild this sexual cannibalism has been recorded to be as infrequent as 20% of encounters for the Chinise Mantis which has quite high sexual dimorphism, and it only becomes less frequent for species whose males and females are more similarly sized.

Compare that to 65% for the redback spider, Austrialia's premier widow, where the males often do a little summersault directly into the females fangs during mating, killing themselves, but resulting in longer copulation times and roughly twice as many offspring.

What I'm saying is that there are far more interesting things about mantids than their sexual cannibalistic nature, which is overblown and dramatized.

Want some mantis fun facts?

mantids travel at night by flying, and possess a single "ear" that is located between their legs, when a bat pings them with echolocation they can hear it and drop out of the sky in response as a means of evasion.
mantids prominent compound eyes provide them some binocular vision which researches tested by constructing little mantis 3D glasses, here's what that looks like:
mantids, like many insects, are capable repairing extensive damage to their bodies between moults, including lost limbs, this repair work exists underneath their exoskeleton and is present upon emerging from a moult
many species of mantids are capable of changing colors between molts based on the relative tempurature and humidity of their environment, this is an done between moults, and is a camouflage adaptation because they rely extensively on surrounding plants to conceal their presence from predators

Many people know about the Orchid Mantis (hymenopus coronatus)and perhaps the Devil Flower Mantis(idolomantis diabolica), but my favorite species are the Dragon Mantis (stenophylla lobivertex), and the Wandering Violin Mantis (gongylus gongylodes). They're so lanky I love it.

Thanks for reading.

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago

Thanks.