To avoid sexual cannibalism, praying mantis males choose well-fed females.

Image: Flickr/Tom HannySomehow, sexual cannibalism never seems to get old. Maybe it's the visceral image of animals eating their partners after doing the deed. Or maybe hearing about kinky sex in wild animals helps us accept our own sexual oddities. Whatever the cause of our obsession, this study adds another layer of drama to the mix. Here, scientists gave male praying mantises a choice of whom to interact with: a likely well-fed female (prey in hand), a potentially hungry female (empty-handed), or a male holding food. And, as the title suggests, the males chose the females holding food, but first waited for them to finish their snacks. A wise choice, given that females have been known to sever male heads during copulation. Gulp!Males choose to keep their heads: Preference for lower risk females in a praying mantid. "Male reproductive success is obviously mate limited, which implies that males should rarely ...