# The Tale of the Headless Horseman (tis)



## Orin (Oct 2, 2012)

I'm sure we all know that male mantids can continue mating after their heads have been removed. Certainly a headless male won't chase down a female and mate with her. However, there are a few books that claim a male mantis will attempt to mate with a pencil or female mantis if the male is placed on them after its head has been removed. I'm thinking it's a totally made up story but it doesn't sound impossible. Is anyone aware of actual experiment described in old literature or firsthand attempts?


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## Golden State Vivs (Oct 2, 2012)

You know, I was wondering the same thing the other day. I have a friend that has attempted to do this with _S californica_, unfortunately he was unsuccessful.


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## ismart (Oct 2, 2012)

I have done this before with mixed results. They were not always able to connect, but they did always try. I have done this with chinese, and carolina males. Mind you these males were passed there prime.


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## aNisip (Oct 2, 2012)

ismart said:


> I have done this before with mixed results. They were not always able to connect, but they did always try. I have done this with chinese, and carolina males. Mind you these males were passed there prime.


I tried this with my D lobata male, fed him to the girl cuz he couldn't support himself but rescued his lower body (with legs too) and he tried connecting but no success, like ismart said, this guys was past his prime...


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## Rick (Oct 2, 2012)

I don't know of anything in the literature but I am surprised you haven't witnessed this firsthand. The males abdomen will bend and make the same movements it does right before mating. The genitalia will try to mate with anything in contact with the abdomen. I have had a male lose the head before connecting with the female and I was able to position him just right in order for him to connect and mate successfully. The males body will do this whenever the head is lost regardless if he was in the presence of a female prior to decapitation.


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## lancaster1313 (Oct 2, 2012)

I have tried it with Tenodera sinensis and Hierodula multispina. It did not work when I placed the decapitated males on the females.

However, had a H. multispina who disconnected while his mate ate part of his head. I left them alone for a few minutes. When I returned, he was missing the head and one side of his prothorax, but reconnected.


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## hibiscusmile (Oct 2, 2012)

It usually works fine, as long as the male can hold on he will usually finish, sometimes he turns his self around to the front of her and then will turn back around looking for the right spot, I have mated many this way.


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## Orin (Oct 3, 2012)

Rick said:


> I don't know of anything in the literature but I am surprised you haven't witnessed this firsthand.


I have a number of photos of mating males without heads but have never cut off a male's head with scissors to see what would happen. Unless they're already mating, and she reaches back to snatch his head, cannibalized males usually get hit at the prothorax or abdomen first. On the rare chance she got only his head I'm sure I've tried it but certainly never saw any real response.


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## Orin (Oct 3, 2012)

Rick said:


> The males body will do this whenever the head is lost regardless if he was in the presence of a female prior to decapitation.


 So if you took a random male and cut his head off he'd go straight into mating behavior? You're 100% sure about this?


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## Rick (Oct 3, 2012)

Orin said:


> So if you took a random male and cut his head off he'd go straight into mating behavior? You're 100% sure about this?


I've seen it happen I can tell you that for sure. I have never done any experiments so I don't think my sample size is large enough to say it always occurs.


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## sinensispsyched (Oct 3, 2012)

I read from "The Praying Mantids" that there is a direct nerve from the back of the head all the way to the abdomen. The authors tested this out by cutting off the head, and most times the abdominal flexing and mating behavior occurred.


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## hibiscusmile (Oct 3, 2012)

yes, it works, havent done it that way, but if it is willing it will, some species like the lobata, and violin, u can cut the heads off all day long and it would not mate!!!!!


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## Orin (Oct 3, 2012)

sinensispsyched said:


> I read from "The Praying Mantids" that there is a direct nerve from the back of the head all the way to the abdomen. The authors tested this out by cutting off the head, and most times the abdominal flexing and mating behavior occurred.


What page number? That same book on page 13-16 explains it's an unsupported myth.


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## lancaster1313 (Oct 3, 2012)

likebugs said:


> I have tried it with Tenodera sinensis and Hierodula multispina. It did not work when I placed the decapitated males on the females.
> 
> However, had a H. multispina who disconnected while his mate ate part of his head. I left them alone for a few minutes. When I returned, he was missing the head and one side of his prothorax, but reconnected.


I have never personally removed the heads of my mantids. The mantids were decapitated by other mantids and placed back on them, and a few times, placed on other non-decapitating females. Nevertheless, the heads were technically removed.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. :blush:


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## Rick (Oct 3, 2012)

Orin said:


> What page number? That same book on page 13-16 explains it's an unsupported myth.


I'll have to look.


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## MantidLord (Oct 4, 2012)

I've done it before with mantids of different species. But I only do it if the male is showing signs of dying of old age or is badly injured. I cut off the head, they always go into copulatory behavior. The hard part is getting him to "line up" with the female, and even harder, getting the female to allow him to mate. Because he's not hitting her with his antennae (which I assume does something to calm her down or let her know what's going on), the female will usually shift and move her abdomen away from his. So it ends up with you not only grabbing a decapitated male, but also grabbing the female and trying to force them to mate. Not a fun thing. But when I was successful with some Chinese and an Iris once, the ooths were fertile. Since Iris can be parthenogenetic, it's possible that the mating wasn't successful. Seeing as how I let the nymphs go, I'm not sure if they were all female or a mix.


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## Paradoxica (Mar 9, 2013)

Ok, so this is a little different but about 4 days ago I noticed my L1 Miomantis Binotatas had committed their first act of cannibalism. The headless nymph has been hanging from the lid for days now. This morning I went to remove the dead body and it crawled away from me when I touched it! 4 days later and the body is still alive. I ended up feeding it to a Giant Shield nymph, but I still cant believe my eyes.

Anyone seen anything like this before?


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## psyconiko (Mar 9, 2013)

Orin said:


> So if you took a random male and cut his head off he'd go straight into mating behavior? You're 100% sure about this?


Don t want to be off topic but something close happens to human males.Hanging,decapitation etc...can induce a quick "mating behavior". :blush:


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## BugLover (Mar 9, 2013)

We need to send this to Mythbusters!


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## Mime454 (Mar 9, 2013)

I did it before and posted a thread about it.


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## brancsikia339 (Mar 9, 2013)

I've also seen it


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