Data from: Sexual deception in a cannibalistic mating system? testing the Femme Fatale hypothesis

Animal communication theory holds that in order to be evolutionarily
stable, signals must be honest on average, but significant dishonesty
(i.e. deception) by a subset of the population may also evolve. A typical
praying mantid mating system involves active mate searching by males,
which is guided by airborne sex pheromones in most species for which
mate-searching cues have been studied. The Femme Fatale hypothesis
suggests that female mantids may be selected to exploit conspecific males
as prey if they benefit nutritionally from cannibalism. Such a benefit
exists in the false garden mantid Pseudomantis albofimbriata—females use
the resources gained from male consumption to significantly increase their
body condition and reproductive output. This study aimed to examine the
potential for chemical deception among the subset of females most likely
to benefit from cannibalism (poorly fed females). Females were placed into
one of four feeding treatments (‘Very Poor’, ‘Poor’, ‘Medium’ and ‘Good’),
and males were given the opportunity to choose between visually obscured
females in each of the treatments. Female body condition and fecundity
varied linearly with food quantity; however, female attractiveness did
not. That is, Very Poor females attracted significantly more males than
any of the other female treatments, even though these females were in
significantly poorer condition, less fecund (in this study) and more
likely to cannibalise (in a previous study). In addition, there was a
positive correlation between fecundity and attractiveness if Very Poor
females were removed from the analysis, suggesting an inherently honest
signalling system with a subset of dishonest individuals. This is the
first empirical study to provide evidence of sexual deception via chemical
cues, and the first to provide support for the Femme Fatale hypothesis.