Interesting mating ritual of praying mantids
It's Saturday night, you pick your wardrobe's nicest outfit ardously, do up your hair nicely and spray nice-smelling perfume on your body, then perform the curious ritual of checking yourself over and over in the mirror. What is this all about? With no doubt, it's R-O-M-A-N-C-E!
The animal kingdom also "date". Here's an interesting "mating ritual".
Courtship & dating can be a hazardous undertaking for the male, especially when one talks about the love affairs of the praying mantis. The male and female praying mantids engage in a very interesting mating ritual. The female mantis starts to devour the male mantis during the mating process by ripping his head off. This is because a nerve center in the brain inhibits sexual behavior in the male until he has firmly grasped the female from the back. The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body, thus leaving the female mantis to rip his head off. She starts at the head and by the time she reaches the abdomen, the mating process is completed. But only 180 mantid species engage in such a bewildering and shocking practice.
Biologists debate on such an act done by the female mantis, coming to a conclusion that it's simply hunger. However, research has been done and it shows that well-nourished female mantids refrained from cannibalism, while those deprived of food ate any male regardless of the involvement of mating.
Evidence has also been found to show that the males benefit from the mating process though their head is ripped off. This can be observed in the case that there is a higher possibility for the offspring to carry the genes of the male in the future. For example, the odds of getting the male to fertilize the egg increases in the process when the female gets very engrossed in chewing up her partner. The loss of the male's head also blocks normal inhibitory nerve impulses and he becomes more abandoned sexually. The females do benefit too as the male's head proves to be a handy source of nutrition for herself and to feed her offspring. Bizarre as is seems, the male mantid can continue to engage in sex after his head has been devoured. However, it is not a must for the praying mantids to reproduce in such a way.
Praying Mantids Mating
Mantis Love(:
Here's an interesting video about the praying mantids' mating process!
Sources:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/love_among_bugs.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_05.html
