Pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism, or cannibalism without mating, is expected to promote the evolution of male strategies that enhance mating success and reduce the risk of cannibalism, such as preferential mating with feeding females. However, sexual selection on male competitiveness may alter male courtship decisions in the face of cannibalism risk. We investigated the effect of prey availability and rival presence on male mating decisions in the highly cannibalistic Springbok mantis, Miomantis caffra. We found that males approached females more rapidly and mated more often in the presence of prey, suggesting that females distracted with foraging may be less of a threat. The presence of a rival also hastened the onset of copulation and led to higher mating success, with very large effects occurring in the presence of both prey and rivals, indicating that intrasexual competition may intensify attraction to foraging females. Taken together, our results suggest that pre-copulatory cannibalism has selected for male preference for foraging females, and that males adjust their mating strategy to both the risk of competition and the threat of cannibalism.

中文翻译：

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在食人性螳螂中存在猎物和对手时，男性交配成功率提高

交配前性食人或不食人的食人，预计将促进雄性策略的发展，从而提高交配成功率并降低食人性的风险，例如优先与哺乳雌性交配。但是，面对食人族的风险，对男性竞争力的性选择可能会改变男性的求偶决定。我们在高度食人性跳羚螳螂Miomantis caffra中调查了猎物的可获得性和竞争对手的存在对雄性交配决定的影响。我们发现，在有猎物的情况下，雄性更快地接近雌性，交配频率更高，这表明，由于觅食而分心的雌性威胁较小。对手的出现也加快了交配的发生，并提高了交配的成功率，猎物和对手的出现都会产生很大的影响，表明性竞争可能会增强对觅食女性的吸引力。两者合计，我们的研究结果表明，交配前的同类相食已经选择了雄性作为觅食雌性的偏爱，而雄性则根据竞争风险和同类相食的威胁来调整其交配策略。