first case of adult male cannibalism

[wuwu]

I've always kept adult males of every species together since they're very nervous and non aggressive. I've never had an incident of cannibalism until yesterday. it happened with my adult male m. binotatas. i'm not even sure i would consider it cannibalism since only a small part of the neck was eaten. maybe they just got in a fight. and yes, they were well fed.

i think it is quite rare. has any of you experienced adult male cannibalism?

 

[Domanating]

Pretty common occurrence with Mantis Religiosa. Males or females, they all try to eat each other.

 

[Paradoxica]

I've had an adult male ghosts eat his brother's neck (I found the decapitated head and a nearly complete body). The one that really surprised me was when a sub adult ghost male eat his freshly molted adult brother (who had finished molting/ inflating his wings) and was still hardening.

 

[Termite48]

I think that either sex, not as commonly with males will resort to cannibalism at any time especially when we least expect it just so we cannot ever fully trust them. Surely the larger hatching species are good at the art from the get go. Others, like B. mendica almost never are guilty of the heinous bahavior ( to us).

 

[Extrememantid]

Pretty common occurrence with Mantis Religiosa. Males or females, they all try to eat each other.

I've kept religiosa's for a few years now and I've never seen males try to eat each other... I keep my males in pairs of two or three per enclosure.. I've only seen females try to eat other females and of course males

 

[agent A]

ive had to pry male pseudoharpax virescens from the females they were attacking before and once a female was bit by a male then died of an infection

i also had a male creobroter gemmatus bite off a female's wing while mating once

 

[Domanating]

I've kept religiosa's for a few years now and I've never seen males try to eat each other... I keep my males in pairs of two or three per enclosure.. I've only seen females try to eat other females and of course males

Your males must be way more civilized than mine, then. I had dozens of cannibalism cases between males. When I try to do some group photos, the males always end up fighting before I have time to prepare my camera

If they are about the same size they will threaten each other and strike fiercely. Otherwise the smaller adult gets eaten despite the threats.

My latest male cannibalism case

 

[Rick]

Yep, I've had it. Mantids are generalist predators so I don't think it matters as to what gender they are. But you do see it more with females. I've also seen female on female cannibalism. The one case that sticks in my mind best is one female Tenodera consumed another that was laying an ootheca.

 

[nirotorin]

It's really too bad mantids are so canibalistic. Just imagine what the hobby would be like if they were more social.

 

[Rick]

It's really too bad mantids are so canibalistic. Just imagine what the hobby would be like if they were more social.

They wouldn't be nearly as appealing to me if they weren't such generalist predators.

 

[wuwu]

a few days after i posted this, one of the males went apesh*t and killed the 4 remaining males. now i only have one male. =(

i wonder if the female calling caused it to be extra aggressive and kill the competition.