WEBVTT - Do Female Praying Mantises Really Decapitate Mates?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works. Hi brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren vocal bamb here. It's long been an excitedly

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<v Speaker 1>repeated myth that female praying mantis is have no problem

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<v Speaker 1>engaging in violent, cannibalistic murder when confronted with a friendly mate,

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps because school classrooms often host terrariums with mantis subjects.

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<v Speaker 1>It's one of those rumors that even children seem to know.

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<v Speaker 1>Don't breed with a female mantis lest your head becomes

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<v Speaker 1>her dinner. Sounds scary, but is it true. Do the

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<v Speaker 1>females of the species actually eat or decapitate their mates,

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<v Speaker 1>or are they simply being maligned by alarmed men who

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps empathize a little too much with their insect brethren.

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<v Speaker 1>The key to understanding these questions is the word species,

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<v Speaker 1>because while we might have a picture of a standard

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<v Speaker 1>looking green mantis in our head, there are actually two thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>four hundred species of the sucker. Some are colorful, some

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<v Speaker 1>are creepy, and some, yes, some are cannibals. But before

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<v Speaker 1>we get into the occasionally cruel lifestyle of the female mantis,

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<v Speaker 1>let's take a second to examine the basis of the

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<v Speaker 1>naybe myth. What we discover is that the myth is

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<v Speaker 1>rooted in well documented science. In an eight six observation

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<v Speaker 1>from the journal Science, entomologist Leland Assian Howard noted that

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<v Speaker 1>on placing a male mantis with a female, the female

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<v Speaker 1>systematically proceeded to eat the male's left leg, left eye,

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<v Speaker 1>and right leg, and then decapitate him and eat his head.

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<v Speaker 1>The male, keep in mind, was attempting to mate with

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<v Speaker 1>her the whole time, which she eventually acquiesced to with

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<v Speaker 1>her headless and mostly legless partner. While Howard stressed that

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<v Speaker 1>he had never seen it before, he also rather breathlessly stated,

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<v Speaker 1>it seems to be only by accident that a male

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<v Speaker 1>ever escapes alive from the embraces of his partner. We

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<v Speaker 1>see how this could make everyone think that mantis ladies

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<v Speaker 1>were nothing but bloodthirsty harpies. But remember Howard saw this

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<v Speaker 1>once with one species of mantis, Mantis Carolina. Decapitation or

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<v Speaker 1>cannibalism went on to be observed in Mantis religiosa as well,

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<v Speaker 1>and a few other scientists studied the question of why

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<v Speaker 1>decapitation would be useful for mating. Some theories the decapitation

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<v Speaker 1>might cause sexual movements in the male abdomen, or perhaps

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<v Speaker 1>part of the thorax, might actually inhibit sexual movements. Both

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<v Speaker 1>theories were later proved false. So here's the real deal.

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<v Speaker 1>Female mantises have occasionally been observed to cannibalize and decapitate

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<v Speaker 1>their mates, but by and large doesn't seem to be

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<v Speaker 1>the case. Study in animal behavior made it forty pairs

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<v Speaker 1>of mantis is only one was decapitated in almost seventy encounters.

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<v Speaker 1>Bottom line, you can stop with the cliche female mantis jokes.

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<v Speaker 1>Dating is hard enough. Nobody needs reputation as a man eater.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Kate Kirshner and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tristan McNeil. For more on this and lots of other

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<v Speaker 1>myth busting topics, visit our home planet has to Works

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<v Speaker 1>dot com