I think the Gould/Dawkins dichotomy, like most, is false. Most evolutionary features, and certainly many behaviors are shaped by a complex interplay of adaptation and exaptation.

And about those photos? Don’t these insects have blood? Pretty spotless (though lovely) white seamless background…

Hyper-castrating female insects: New York Times, what’s your problem? You’re creeping me out. Why?

David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton use a similar style (albeit with a different focus), photographing rare native Hawaiian animals and plants against monochrome backdrops to stunning effect in their books Archipelago and Remains of a Rainbow.

Yes, and males tend to forget they focus on the sole act of “mating” (often with as many females as they can), while females are usually looking out for the interests of the offspring, namely for a commitment (not that *all* females stick around to raise their young, either)… but, the male mantid offers nothing, except fulfilment on an instinct driven inside a brain that’s about the size of a butt of a needle, so what has the female possibly got to gain by allowing the male live? There’s nothing in instinct there, telling the female “this guy is going to stick around for the long haul”, might as well get what she can while the getting is good –dinner is the least he can do.

Headless Males Make Great Lovers by Marty Crump
How can it be? Copulatory movements in mantids are controlled by masses of nerve tissue in the abdomen rather than the brain …
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/121992.html

whoa, wicked. do they inflate before he dies or after? if it’s after, how do they do that?

I think one huge detail has been left out though. If the males survived mating, would they be able to mate again?

In some species it could be something similar to ageing. They are past their mating abilities, so it doesn’t matter what happens to them and so they don’t evolve techniques to survive mating. The reasons sexual cannibalism doesn’t work in other species is because males can mate many times after mating, so they have a reason to evolve ways of surviving after mating. …etc.

Sharon: I understood that it’s “praying” because the way they hold their fore-legs makes them look as though they’re, well, praying. I’m not sure that the “count the Google hits” technique is an authoritative way of checking spelling, although a social relativist might say that it is…

By gosh, you are right.
A google search revealed
Results 1 – 10 of about 63,100 for praying mantid.
Results 1 – 10 of about 1,470,000 for preying mantid.
Results 1 – 10 of about 1,770,000 for preying mantis.
Results 1 – 10 of about 1,620,000 for praying mantis
prey or pray?