How to avoid being eaten by female insects? Male insects have their own tricks

Insects are the most numerous type of animals in the world, and as long as they are animals, they must reproduce. For some species of insects, a special behavior will occur during the reproduction process, which is called "sexual cannibalism" in biology.

Simply put, female insects will eat males after or during mating. This special behavior is often described as "selfless dedication of male insects", but this is just a beautiful imagination. In fact, no male insect is willing to be eaten. For any creature, there are two most important things, one is survival and the other is reproduction. Reproduction is important, but most creatures will not give up survival for reproduction. Moreover, for male insects, mating means that the task of reproduction has been completed, and there is no need to lose their lives for this.

Since male insects do not volunteer to be eaten, is there any way to avoid being hunted by their wives? Of course, male insects also have their own tricks.

When it comes to "sexual cannibalism", there are two insects that are the most typical, one is the praying mantis, and the other is the spider. Let's talk about the praying mantis first. If a female praying mantis wants to eat a male praying mantis, it is a piece of cake, because in terms of appearance, the female praying mantis is much more muscular than the male praying mantis. However, unlike the "sexual cannibalism" of spiders, the female praying mantis eats the male praying mantis not to supplement nutrition for the next generation. The praying mantis is the best hunter in nature. Under the condition of the same weight, no animal can be the opponent of the praying mantis. For example, in front of a praying mantis of the same weight, it is difficult for a lion or a tiger to survive for more than half a minute.

Because mantises have powerful hunting abilities, there are almost no hungry mantises in nature, so they do not need to eat their "husbands". Female mantises eat male mantises mainly because they are stimulated during mating.

There are ways to avoid this tragedy. Some species of male mantises will hold a complex courtship ritual before mating, and only act after fully obtaining the approval of the female mantis, so they are more likely not to be eaten by the female mantis. Of course, if the male mantis is fast enough, sometimes it may be able to escape without holding a courtship ritual. When it comes to escaping, male spiders are much better at escaping than mantises.

The long-haired spider is a common spider in Shanghai, Sichuan and other places. It is a typical spider with "sexual cannibalism". However, in nature, there are very few male spiders that are actually eaten. Why? Because the long-haired spider has a special escape technique.

When mating, the male spider presses his legs against the abdomen of the female spider. When mating is complete, these legs will instantly pop open like a spring, and the male spider will be ejected at a speed of about 60 centimeters per second to avoid becoming a delicious meal for the female spider. Why are male spiders ejected so quickly? It's all thanks to their hydraulic joints. The leg joints of the dragon spider are hydraulically powered, but they are filled with hemolymph instead of oil. The dragon spider has a strong heart, and relying on this power source, they can quickly contract their muscles to compress the hemolymph for ejection.

In most cases, the spider needs to eject more than once during a mating process, because the female spider may want to eat the male spider in the middle of mating. At this time, the male spider will eject, and then slowly approach to continue the unfinished mating process.

In the existing observation records, the most a male spider has ever performed is 6 ejections during a mating process. However, not all spiders have the ability of the Long-Herod spider, because this requires not only the support of physical hardware, but also keen insight to help them stay alert at all times, so most spiders prefer to take precautions in advance like praying mantises.

There is a kind of spider called "strange thief spider" living in Xinjiang and Gansu in my country. This spider can be said to have taken preventive measures to the extreme.

The male spider will tie up the female spider with his own spider silk before mating, which is much safer. It takes a long time for the female spider to get rid of the spider silk that binds her, so usually the male spider has been gone for a long time before the female spider finally regains her freedom. However, most spiders do not have the strong physical conditions of the Long-Hermit Spider, nor the fierceness of the Strange Robber Spider, so most spiders will adopt a more pragmatic method, which is to offer sufficient food before mating to fill the stomach of the female spider, so that the probability of being eaten can be greatly reduced. Whether it is a spider or a mantis, the male will take great pains to avoid being eaten by the female, so voluntary sacrifice does not exist at all.

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