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Sexual cannibalism is the predation of a prospective mate either before, during or after mating (Lawrence, 1992).

Sexual cannibalism occurs in many arthropods, but the most popular cases are among praying mantids. Here you can find a video of sexual cannabalism on praying mantids.

Some works have suggested adaptive explanations for sexual cannibalism, from both the female and male perspective. Females that cannibalize their mates may gain nutrients enabling them to increase the size and rate of eggs production. For males, sexual cannibalism, may be an adaptive reproductive strategy when the chances of fertilizing more than one female are low and the nutrients gained by the female increase the number and/or quality of the eggs that the male has fertilized.

Propose a mathematical model to describe the dynamics of … Your model should take into account that a females can engage in sexual canibalism, and/or males can react to canibalistic females (e.g. avoiding them).

Decide which behaviour is more important and gives the correct dynamics or more realism to the model. Both behaviours could exists at the same time? If females becomes more and more aggressive, males will avoid more than one mating? Food availability necessary will turn female more deadly? After eating a male, a female will turn more acceptive to mating other males?

• Will a population with only non-canibalistic females be invasible by canibalistic females?
• Will a population with only males that do not avoid canibalistic females be invasible by males that have some avoiding behavior?
• Can alternative behaviors coexist in the same population?

• Lawrence, S. E. “Sexual cannibalism in the praying mantid, Mantis religiosa: a field study.” Animal Behaviour 43.4 (1992): 569-583.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347205810176
• Barry, Katherine L., Gregory I. Holwell, and Marie E. Herberstein. “Female praying mantids use sexual cannibalism as a foraging strategy to increase fecundity.” Behavioral Ecology 19.4 (2008): 710-715.https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/19/4/710/201821