Sexual deception in a cannibalistic mating system? Testing the Femme Fatale hypothesis.

ABSTRACT: Animal communication theory holds that in order to be evolutionarily stable, signals must be honest on average, but significant dishonesty (i.e. deception) by a subset of the population may also evolve. A typical praying mantid mating system involves active mate searching by males, which is guided by airborne sex pheromones in most species for which mate-searching cues have been studied. The Femme Fatale hypothesis suggests that female mantids may be selected to exploit conspecific males as prey if they benefit nutritionally from cannibalism. Such a benefit exists in the false garden mantid Pseudomantis albofimbriata-females use the resources gained from male consumption to significantly increase their body condition and reproductive output. This study aimed to examine the potential for ch

SUBMITTER: Barry KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4298199 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature