Not for the faint-hearted

I'd been greeting and waving at my Arizona praying mantid (Stagmomantis limbata) friend for awhile. She lives in some salvias. Then last week I noticed something not quite right. There appeared to be some hanky panky going on, but someone lacked a head. I posted my observations to iNaturalist.

Mantodea shared some interesting information: "Cannibalism during mating is indicated within 8 to 20 percent of encounters, with low diet females being more likely to attack the male. When cannibalism during copulation occurs, the head and prozonal area of the male’s pronotum is generally consumed while the remainder of the male’s body remains in copulation, which may continue undeterred for another 20 hours or more" 

Mantodea (Kris Anderson) also shared a link to his mantid project, "Praying Mantises of the United States and Canada."  Cool!