While waiting patiently for prey to pass, stagmomantis carolina female Z’zhhchk’t spied an apparently suitable mate coming slowly over nearby rocks. Curious, she cocked her grey head toward him, focusing him squarely in her binocular vision, and made subtle sounds to indicate she was in heat. The male began his mating dance, swaying this way then that and rearing up in playful menace on his hind legs.
Finding him properly strong and graceful, Z’zhhchk’t moved into a welcoming position, flashing her eyespots seductively. The male approached further. Once copulation had commenced and he was firmly locked within her grasping fore-claws, she used her powerful pincers to remove his at the base of the neck, eating it as his genetic material fertilized her.
Once impregnated fully, Z’zhhchk’t consumed the rest of his body before settling back into ambush-predator mode, her speckled exoskeleton and complete stillness making her all but disappear into the surrounding terrain. Within her abdomen, cells split, then split again.
americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan
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