Fun fact! That's a poorly done research paper, like 'alpha' wolves, which was just a mother protecting her kids.
Mantis don't typically eat their partners head, but when they're in captivity, and the male has NOTHING else to offer as tribute, it offers itself, so the wife doesn't starve and their kids might live.
This is the case for many cephalopods. In fact, it's where young blue ring and blue lined octopuses get the bacteria that produce their venom from. They eat the mother, including the venom gland and acquire the bacteria.
In fact, it's where young blue ring and blue lined octopuses get the bacteria that produce their venom from. They eat the mother, including the venom gland and acquire the bacteria.
Do you have a source for that? Google search says that's not true.
I don't. I did some work about 20 years ago with someone who was breeding blue lined octopuses for the CSIRO in Tasmania, Australia (most species of Haplochlaena are Australian fwiw). When not offered the mother but instead another food source, the juveniles were not venomous. I don't have the papers, the information was through personal communication.
Interesting. All I found was completely conflicting information denying that, so I think your breeder boss was just a POS to the animals and starving them.
That is correct. I was working with someone years ago that was doing some work with the CSIRO in Australia, breeding blue lined octopuses and looking at how this process works. I mean, it makes perfect sense, tetrodotoxin (aka maculotoxin) is produced by bacteria so animals that have this toxin (some tetraodontiformes and some octopuses) must acquire the bacteria somehow.
If the female is hungry she'll eat the males head. If not, maybe not.
I have bred mantis in captivity a bunch and have never had a male die to a female. In fact I've had them share the space often and rarely do the males get eaten. Then again I keep my mantis well fed so I'm assuming in the wild if the female is hungry she won't hesitate to eat him
Most cases of sexual cannibalism are when the female is stressed and needs nutrients. Female octopuses for example are known to devour the smaller males on occasion, but the males often GTFO of Dodge immediately after mating for this reason. The black-legged golden orb-web spider males sometime wait until the female is literally feeding on prey to mate with them.
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u/Laprasy Aug 04 '26
all she needs is the head