Hence, no doubt, arise more opportunities for the females to persecute the males whom they no longer require; to fall upon them from the rear and eviscerate them.

This pursuit of their onetime lovers is aggravated by their confined quarters; but it certainly is not caused thereby, for such customs are not suddenly originated.
The mating season over, the female encountering a male in the open must evidently regard him as fair game, and devour him as the termination of the matrimonial rites.

I have turned over many stones, but have never chanced upon this spectacle, but what has occurred in my menagerie is sufficient to convince me.

What a world these beetles live in, where the matron devours her mate so soon as her fertility delivers her from the need of him! And how lightly the males must be regarded by custom, to be served in this manner! Is this practice of post-matrimonial cannibalism a general custom in the insect world?
For the moment, I can recollect only three characteristic examples: those of the Praying Mantis, the Golden Gardener, and the scorpion of Languedoc.

An analogous yet less brutal practice--for the victim is defunct before he is eaten--is a characteristic of the Locust family.