Precopulatory 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 preferentially approaching feeding females. Sexual selection on male competitiveness has the potential to alter male mating decisions in the face of cannibalism risk, but such effects are poorly understood. We investigated the effect of prey availability and male–male competition on mating incidence in the highly cannibalistic Springbok mantis, Miomantis caffra. We found that matings were initiated more rapidly and more often in the presence of prey, suggesting that females distracted with foraging may be less of a threat. Competition between males also hastened the onset of copulation and led to higher mating success, with very large effects occurring in the presence of both prey and competitors, indicating that intrasexual competition may intensify attraction to foraging females. Taken together, our results suggest that precopulatory 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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在性相食的螳螂中，在猎物和竞争对手存在的情况下，雄性交配成功率增加

预计交配前的性自相残杀——或没有交配的自相残杀——将促进雄性策略的演变，从而提高交配成功率并降低自相残杀的风险，例如优先接近喂养雌性。面对同类相食的风险，对雄性竞争力的性选择有可能改变雄性的交配决定，但人们对这种影响知之甚少。我们研究了猎物可用性和雄性 - 雄性竞争对高度同类相食的跳羚螳螂 Miomantis caffra 交配率的影响。我们发现，在猎物存在的情况下，交配开始得更快、更频繁，这表明因觅食而分心的雌性可能威胁较小。雄性之间的竞争也加速了交配的开始并导致更高的交配成功率，在猎物和竞争者都存在的情况下会产生非常大的影响，这表明性内竞争可能会增强对觅食雌性的吸引力。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明，交配前的同类相食已经选择了雄性对觅食雌性的偏好，并且雄性会根据竞争风险和同类相食的威胁调整其交配策略。