I went out on my porch a bit ago to feed my cats and sit on my porch swing. The wind was blowing gently, but I could hear it picking up in the rustling of the leaves in the tops of nearby trees. A series of storms had blown through and rain was still dripping from the eaves of the roof. Night insects were making their respective night noises and the porch light was drawing in the moths and the beetles and the nameless flying insects to its yellow glow. Near the porch light, the blue-white tube of light from the bug zapper lured even more insects to "go towards the light." I could see that a spider had built her web in the space between the two lights. Smart move.
As I sat on my swing, the noise of the wind got louder, and mixed with it, the sound of increasing drops of rain. The bug zapper was swaying on its hook, making the spider's web catch rays of light on the shiny surfaces of each strand. It was beautiful. As I watched the web, movement on the porch rail below the lights caught my eye. I focused in and there was one of the biggest specimen of praying mantis I've ever seen. I'm not a good judge of size (three inches, six inches, twelve...), but it had to be at least 5-6 inches long. The movement that caught my eye was the praying mantis' circular swaying as it stood beneath the lights. I got up for a closer look...and it turned its head and looked right at me.
I don't believe in aliens. That's not to say they don't exist. Just because you don't believe something, doesn't make it not true. But if there are aliens biding their time to enslave these soft creatures of various colors who, in the words of Radiohead Thom Yorke, "lock up their spirits, drill holes in themselves, and live for their secrets," I can imagine them looking just like praying mantises. Big eyes, long antennae, grabby-pokey forehands, long spindly legs, skinny tube-like bodies, and retractable wings. Shudder.
The electrical cord from the bug zapper hangs down and it is close to the railing. The praying mantis swayed in place for a few seconds, then reached across the span and grabbed on to the cord. It started climbing. Now, even though they remind me of potential aliens, I didn't wish this creature to climb into the zapper and die in a buzzing, smoking dance of death. At the same time, I was curious to see if it was drawn to the light like the lesser, dumber creatures, or if it was using the light as a lure for a late-night snack. So I waited and watched. It slowly made its way up the cord, using its powerful forearms and thin legs to pull itself upward. Every time I made a movement, it would stop and turn its head towards me. So I did my best to not move. When it got to the same level as the bottom of the zapper, I was on the ready to pull the plug. But it made no attempt to climb onto it. It kept climbing the cord until it reached the top of the zapper, then climbed onto the rafter above. I never saw it catch anything, but I believe it was taking advantage of the light's allure to catch a meal.
I think the praying mantis might be my favorite insect. Did you know that "mantis" is the Greek word for "prophet" or "seer?" Those eyes, though...and as far as my favorite insect, it's a close race between it and a writing spider. Now, they are cool. I've sat and watched one build her web, tying off the supporting strands, then making the spiraling network of strands that make up the body of the web. And when she called it complete, she waited with patience in the middle for her catch of the day. But the mantis has no web; just those lightning-fast grabbing claws. And where I've been calling the mantis an "it," just going by the size of this particular mantis, I should be saying, "her" or "she." Those same claws she uses to catch her meals, those claws which hold tight as she munches away at her meal; those are the same claws the hold her mate as she bites his head off.
It is common for her to bite her mate during mating, and it is widely believed that it is the only way the male mantis can release sperm to fertilize her eggs. It is true that if he is attacked during mating, it will increase the "action down below", which results in an increased chance of fertilization. Science has more or less disproved the former statement:
"The reason for sexual cannibalism has been debated, with some considering submissive males to be achieving a selective advantage in their ability to produce offspring. This theory is supported by a quantifiable increase in the duration of copulation among males who are cannibalized, in some cases doubling both the duration and the chance of fertilization. This is contrasted by a study where males were seen to approach hungry females with more caution, and were shown to remain mounted on hungry females for a longer time, indicating that males actively avoiding cannibalism may mate with multiple females. The same study also found that hungry females generally attracted fewer males than those who were well fed. The act of dismounting is one of the most dangerous times for males during copulation, for it is at this time that females most frequently cannibalize their mates. This increase in mounting duration was thought to indicate that males are more prone to wait for an opportune time to dismount from a hungry female rather than from a satiated female that would be less likely to cannibalize her mate. Some consider this to be an indication that male submissiveness does not inherently increase male reproductive success, rather that more fit males are likely to approach a female with caution and escape."
So it isn't always a death sentence for the male. Sometimes he is lucky enough to live and find another mate, thus starting the deadly ritual all over again. But, man, those males have it rough. They are merely doing what generations of male mantises have done before: getting what they want by giving generations of female mantises what they want. And in return, they get their heads chewed off.
Their heads chewed off...
But that doesn't stop successive males from continuing to procreate; to woo the members of the opposite sex, who more often than not, can hand them their heads on a platter. Literally.
So there is hope after all. :-)
Quoted sources:
1) Maxwell, Michael R.; Gallego, Kevin M.; Barry, Katherine L. (2010). "Effects of female feeding regime in a sexually cannibalistic mantid: Fecundity, cannibalism, and male response in Stagmomantis limbata (Mantodea)". Ecological Entomology 35 (6)
2) Lelito, Jonathan P.; Brown, William D. (2006). "Complicity or Conflict over Sexual Cannibalism? Male Risk Taking in the Praying Mantis Tenodera aridifolia sinensis". The American Naturalist 168 (2): 263
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