Praying Mantis

Always heard about the cannibalistic nature of female mantis, finally one monsoon in Agumbe I happened to see it firsthand too! Turns out the female may not always end up eating her mate. Studies have shown that females make a meal out of the males between just 13 and 28 percent of the time. In fact, a study published in 2016 found that when female Chinese mantises consume their mates, they acquire important amino acids that are then incorporated into the eggs they lay. They also appear to lay twice as many eggs after cannibalizing a male than they normally would.