Low Mate Encounter Rate Increases Male Risk Taking in a Sexually Cannibalistic Praying Mantis

Low Mate Encounter Rate Increases Male Risk Taking in a Sexually Cannibalistic Praying Mantis

Male praying mantises are forced into the ultimate trade-off of mating versus complete loss of future reproduction if they fall prey to a female. The balance of this trade-off will depend both on (1) the level of predatory risk imposed by females and (2) the frequency of mating opportunities for males. We report the results of a set of experiments that examine the effects of these two variables...

Multimodal mate assessment by male praying mantids in a sexually cannibalistic mating system

Sexual cannibalism increases male material investment in offspring: quantifying terminal reproductive effort in a praying mantis.

Models of the evolution of sexual cannibalism argue that males may offset the cost of cannibalism if components of the male body are directly allocated to the eggs that they fertilize. We tested this idea in the praying mantid Tenodera sinensis Males and females were fed differently radiolabelled crickets and allowed to mate. Half of the pairs progressed to sexual cannibalism and we prevented c...

You Are What You Eat: Food Limitation Affects Reproductive Fitness in a Sexually Cannibalistic Praying Mantid

Resource limitation during the juvenile stages frequently results in developmental delays and reduced size at maturity, and dietary restriction during adulthood can affect longevity and reproductive output. Variation in food intake can also result in alteration to the normal pattern of resource allocation among body parts or life-history stages. My primary aim in this study was to determine how...

Leg Design for a Praying Mantis Robot

The praying mantis uses its front legs for locomotion, prey capture and feeding. Inspired by this dexterity, we began designing a hexapod robot that could use its front legs for both locomotion and manipulation. Our current work focuses on the middle and back legs of the robot. We designed a five degree of freedom leg, using a gimbal to form three intersecting axes of rotation at the hip to imi...