Pietro Pollo, Nathan W Burke, Gregory I Holwell

Behaviours that are consistent across contexts (also known as behavioural syndromes) can have evolutionary implications, but their role in scenarios where the sexes conflict, such as sexual cannibalism, is poorly understood. The aggressive spillover hypothesis proposes that cannibalistic attacks during adulthood may depend on female aggressiveness during earlier developmental stages, but evidence for this hypothesis is scarce. Male activity may also influence sexual cannibalism if males approach females quickly and carelessly, yet this has not been explored. Here we use the Springbok mantis, Miomantis caffra, to explore whether male activity levels and female aggressiveness can explain high rates of sexual cannibalism prior to copulation. We show that male and female personality traits affect male mating decisions, but not sexual cannibalism. Females that were aggressive as juveniles were not more likely to cannibalize males when adult, but these females were approached by males more frequently. More active males were more likely to approach females, but they were neither faster at doing so nor were they more likely to be cannibalized. We also found that size and age influenced mating decisions of both sexes: young females were more like to cannibalize males while young and large males took longer to approach females. Taken together, our results suggest that several traits, including personality, play a role in sexual encounters in M. caffra. Our study further highlights the importance of examining the traits of both sexes when assessing mating dynamics, especially in the context of sexual cannibalism.