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Why Do Only Females Eat Their Mates?

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Why Do Only Females Eat Their Mates?

MinuteEarth
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0:00In the middle of baby-making, a female  praying mantis will sometimes chomp down  
0:04on a male’s head, then devour him  as she finishes mating with him.
0:08And mantises aren’t alone; many  different species lunch on their lovers.
0:13But one thing is remarkably consistent:  
0:15it’s almost always the females doing the eating.  Why is it dudes that always end up as dinner?
0:21Hi, I’m Kate, and this is MinuteFood.
0:23[Arcadi:] Uhhh, Kate?
0:24[Kate:] Oh, sorry! This is MinuteEarth.
0:27All sorts of critters will occasionally munch  on members of their own species, but here,  
0:32we’re talking specifically about when an animal  eats its mate – or potential mate – before,  
0:37during, or right after babymaking, which  scientists call “sexual cannibalism”.
0:42And – think about it – since females are  the sex that lays the eggs or nurtures  
0:46the offspring inside their own bodies,  if a male eats a female before, during,  
0:50or right after mating, there won’t BE any babies.
0:53So any male who regularly dined on his dates  wouldn’t be able to pass along the habit.
0:59It can really only be females that make a  
1:01habit of lunching on their lovers – and  sometimes, that habit really pays off.
1:06Like, killing off a baby daddy  that otherwise would have helped  
1:09raise the babies doesn’t make a lot of sense.
1:12But in species where males don’t help  out, the female gets left alone to  
1:16raise the babies – sometimes a LOT of  babies – which takes a lot of energy.
1:20So if a convenient, protein-packed snack is, like,  RIGHT THERE, it benefits her bigtime to chow down.
1:27One study found that mantis females  that ate their mates laid more than  
1:31twice as many eggs as those that didn’t.  Which might make it seem like mate-eating  
1:36helps both female AND male mantises  leave behind a bigger genetic legacy.
1:40But since the male ends up dead, his future  prospects are over; if he hadn't been eaten,  
1:45he could have gone on to mate again – and  again, leaving way more babies behind.
1:50In some cases, though, getting  eaten does seem to benefit males.
1:54After redback spiders mate, the  male often somersaults into the  
1:58female’s fangs, offering himself up to her.
2:01Scientists think this self-sacrifice  evolved because in this species,  
2:05the vast majority of males get eaten by  predators before they ever get a chance to mate.
2:10So if a male redback does get  lucky enough to actually get lucky,  
2:14he’s almost certainly not  going to get another chance;
2:17he might as well sacrifice himself to his mate  to make sure the babies are well-provided for.
2:22So we've covered why males get eaten during and  after babymaking, but what’s up with eating a  
2:28potential partner before mating, which guarantees  exactly zero offspring from the pair-up?
2:33Well, in certain species, like fishing spiders,  
2:36competition is intense, so it really  pays for females to be super aggressive,  
2:41and all that innate aggression can accidentally  end up directed toward a potential mate...oops!
2:47The bottom line is that, while  it seems unthinkable to us,  
2:51sometimes it does make sense for  females to plate their dates.
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