Cannibalism has been reported in a large proportion of coccinellids in fields as well as in laboratories but studies involving mate preferences and potential benefits of cannibalism on reproduction in Menochilus sexmaculatus Fabricius (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) have yet not been done. Thus, we assessed the effect of conspecific egg cannibalism on mate preferences and reproductive outputs including offspring development. Higher mate preferences were recorded for non-cannibalistic mates (fed on A. craccivora) than cannibalistic ones (fed on conspecific eggs). Mating parameters were significantly influenced by cannibalism. Time to commence mating lasted less for homogeneous diet pairs than heterogeneous diet pairs. Longer copulation duration and higher fecundity were recorded when one of the individuals in mating pair or both was a non-cannibal. Egg viability did not differ significantly in all the reciprocal crosses. In addition, the total developmental durations of offspring were similar for all mating pairs.

在田间和实验室中，有大量的球虫都报告有食人症，但尚未进行有关配偶偏好和食人症对生殖器繁殖的潜在好处的研究（鞘翅目：球虫）。因此，我们评估了同种卵食人症对配偶偏好和生殖输出（包括后代发育）的影响。记录了非食人性伴侣的更高的伴侣偏好（以A. craccivora喂养）比同类相食的食物（以同种卵喂养）。食人关系极大地影响了交配参数。均质饮食对开始交配的时间少于异质饮食对。当交配对中的一个或两个都为非食人者时，交配持续时间更长，繁殖力更高。卵的生存力在所有的反向杂交中均无显着差异。此外，所有交配对的后代总发育持续时间相似。