An emergency escape when the

When the mantis met, the male mantis forgot all its danger, fluttered again, despite losing its life as if it was playing, as long as there was a love affair - biologists described in a new article published in the Journal. Release PloSBiology.

Mantis are among the largest carnivorous insects on Earth. They hunt not only invertebrates but also newly hatched lizards, frogs and young birds. This insect is very strange in that the male can be eaten meat well by the female while she is in love, meaning that she is receiving the sperm of the "partner" to create future generations. Many males had a way of behaving demonicly to force female mates to accept being lovers, not barbaric assassins.

The whole life is only one mistake

The group of biologists led by William Brown of the University of Fredonia (New York) studied the behavior of Chinese male mantis (scientific name Tenodera sinensis ), having very solemn rituals of lovemaking .

Often male mantises look for lovers to pair with the odor - pheromones emitted by the female's special route. But when it came close, it did not run out of books, but slowly, dancing and sewing, made love gestures. If the mantis showed hunger or aggression, it immediately retreated so that it didn't have to end its life in the mantis's stomach.

It took a lot of effort and experienced mantis can escape the clutches of the children.

Brown and his colleagues examined how the behavior of Chinese mantis changes when approaching the mantis when free and when restricted. They captured some adult mantises in the forest at the lake area of ​​Tchautauka in North America. Each animal is placed in a separate 'apartment' with adequate water and food (crickets).

When insects have a new habitat, scientists divide the male mantis into two groups. Group 1 is insulated and for 5 days it is not allowed to be in contact with mantis. And the second male mantis group has the right to 'communicate' with the belly mantis full of stomach at any time.

The love song is deadly dangerous

After 5 days, biologists conducted 2 experiments with male mantises from both groups. The first experiment they put the 'knights' in the narrow cage and on the other end of the cage had a starved mantis for five days. The second experiment, they gave the future mother a little sipping to minimize the danger.

In the process of 'dating' biologists keep a close eye on it, documenting the speed of enamel to approach and how to agree with them. When the mantis tries to eat the lover, they stop the experiment because they don't see the mistreated being mistreated.

They found that the mantises were lonely (meaning that they never had sex with the mantis) were always lacking in vigilance and not picky when they could contact them. Seeing them, they immediately returned, with a very close distance.

But unlike these inexperienced guys, the males in the second group were extremely cautious when they saw the female mantises starving, crawling very slowly and always keeping a safe distance, allowing them to run away when attacked.

Any recklessness is a deadly danger. Six hours, after scientists facilitated male mantis and the encounter, then in group one, the number of survivors was only 15%. Whereas the mantis in the second group includes the more mature and conservative guys, the number of lives lost is 75%, meaning that up to 25% survive.