Photo: Phil Hastings.

There may actually be some benefits for a male praying mantis who gets eaten by his female mate, a Macquarie University study has reported.

“Our study found that praying mantis sexual cannibalism – where the female eats the male after they mate – actually allows the father mantis to have a greater biological influence over a higher amount of eggs,” explains Dr Kate Barry from the Department of Biological Sciences, an author of the paper.

The researchers reported that a female mantis who decided to snack on a male after mating with him would produce an average of nearly 51 more eggs than a female who decided not to partake in a mate-meal. They also found that the males who fell victim to sexual cannibalism actually had a larger biological influence over their offspring compared to males who only mated and were not eaten.

“When a female ate a male after a mating event, she was found to have around 17.7 per cent more of his biological material in her reproductive tissues, including her eggs and ovaries, than a female who only mated and did not cannibalise her mate,” says Kate.

The findings, the researchers say, provide evidence towards why sexual cannibalism may have evolved in praying mantis species. They note, however, that further research needs to be done in order to find out whether males may opt for a sexual cannibalism scenario compared to a situation where they live to mate another day.

“The cannibalism process not only allows a male to have more biological influence over his offspring, but also means that male could potentially fertilise more eggs from that female. Whether this is a mating strategy remains to be seen, although we can speculate that things like mate availability and the success of a single mating event might affect this,” concludes Kate.