Friday, July 28, 2006

Buy her a nice dinner, and avoid the Missionary Position

Not advice from Doctor Ruth, but good ideas for guy mantids:

Female praying mantids are notorious for eating males after they mate.

Now for the first time, scientists have experimentally shown that the males are hip to the risk and not too keen on being food.

The researchers toyed with the physical position of females and how hungry they were, then noted how males responded. "We know that hungry females are more likely to cannibalize and a head-on orientation makes it easier for her to attack the male with her predatory front legs," explained William Brown of SUNY-Fredonia.

The guys responded to greater risk by slowing their approach, increasing courtship behavior, and mounting from a greater—and possibly safer—distance, the scientists say.

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