Males cannibalizing females
We found seven cases in Anisoptera where adult males of Orthetrum
sabina (n=6) and Erythemis simplicicollis (n=1) consumed
conspecific adult females and four cases in Zygoptera (Ceriagrion
cerinorubellum, Ceriagrion auranticum , Ceriagrion
melanurum and Ischnura graellsii each with one example) where
mature males devouring on females which could be the examples of
reversed sexual cannibalism. But, only in case of Ceriagrion
auranticum both the predator and prey were sexually mature (Reels,
2014); where in Ceriagrion cerinorubellum, Ceriagrion melanurum and Ischnura graellsii victims were teneral and young. Reversed
sexual cannibalism has been observed in some spiders ( Aisenberg
et al., 2011; Sentenská & Pekár, 2014) and
crustaceans (Dick, 1995). Drivers that induce reversed sexual
cannibalism could be extreme mate choice ( Aisenberg et al.,
2011), food scarcity (Dick, 1995) and parasitism (Tsai & Dai,
2003).