Why are female insects more aggressive and bite more than the male ones, but most male mammals are more aggressive and tend to fight more?
In: Biology
The instinct driving any animal is the continuation of its own genetic line, even if that is at the expense of others (since other organisms are just competition for resources). That means, ideally, any organism would desire to mate with as many other organisms of the opposite sex while at the same time preventing them from mating with other organisms, thereby ensuring the continuation of its own genetic line and denying the continuation of other genetic lines.
Basically, both males and females would want to “reserve” the other for their exclusive use, but at the same time, would want to procreate as much as possible.
All other things being equal, this is easier for males than females because once a female becomes pregnant, they are already biologically locked down to the male that impregnated them. Ensuring that the female doesn’t procreate with another male simply involves checking in from time to time.
On the flip side, males don’t get locked down like that, so a female trying to reserve a male would basically involve following him around and killing all of his potential mates or simply killing the male.
With mammals, the first strategy is preserved because our long-term survival strategy is to have few young that we devote a lot of resources into improve individual survival capability. So not only do females take on the burden of actual gestation, but then child rearing and education as well. That leaves the males to take on the role of overall protector of the family unit and territory, leading to stronger more aggressive males.
With insects, the strategy is basically to zerg rush the world. Produce as many offspring as is possible, with no sense of care given to them. Thus the strategy is to kill off the male so they can’t impregnate another female who would just produce thousands of competitors for your own offspring. This leads to stronger and more aggressive females.
This is, of course, speaking only in broad strokes and each animal evolves differently.
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