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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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