Reproductive phenology and female mating frequency of the praying mantid Tenodera angustipennis in western Japan

The timing and frequency of female mating are important determinants of male reproductive success. Elucidating reproductive phenology is crucial to understand the evolution of mating behaviour and mating systems. Mate encounter rate is a key variable for understanding the evolutionary consequences of sexual cannibalism. However, remarkably little is known about female mating frequency in wild populations in mantids, charismatic insects that exhibit sexual cannibalism. The authors examined the reproductive phenology of a wild population of the sexually cannibalistic praying mantid Tenodera angustipennis, and paid special attention to female mating frequency. Field surveys throughout two reproductive seasons were combined with survival model analysis to estimate the phenology of eclosion, adult sex ratio, female first mating, and oviposition, allowing quantification of time windows for reproductive maturation and female mating. Genetic paternity analysis using newly developed microsatellite markers revealed that females mated with two to six males on average before oviposition in the wild. The results provide a comprehensive record of the reproductive phenology and female mating frequency in a wild mantid population, and insight into the evolution of male mating behaviour under sperm competition and sexual cannibalism.