Sexual cannibalism in Praying MantisBiology 342 Fall 2012Anand Panchal, Kimmy Stanton, Emmeline Hill |
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Sexual conflict describes a scenario in which the males and females of a species have competing strategies for reproductive success. An extreme example of sexual conflict is sexual cannibalism, a remarkable phenomenon that has most commonly been observed in insects (praying mantis), arachnids (black widows), and amphipods (Gammarus pulex). In conventionally sexually cannibalistic species, the male is under severe threat from the female during and after the mating process. Rare examples of reversed sexual cannibalism, as in G. pulex males, have also been observed. As such, the adaptive value of sexual cannibalism has been a source of much controversy. While a leading hypothesis assumes that males are a significant source of nutrition for fertilized females, cannibalism of the female by males in species like G. pulex provides a challenge to this theory.
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