The most interesting information about the praying mantis insect. Interesting facts about praying mantises Where did praying mantises come from?

There are over 2 thousand species of these insects in the world. And in our region there lives only one - the common mantis.

This predator is not at all as pious as it might seem. Sitting in ambush for hours in a humble pose, he, like a seasoned special forces soldier, blends in with the vegetation. Fortunately, the natural color allows him to do this without special training. And at the right moment, the praying mantis grabs its victim with lightning speed and gnaws it alive.

As explained by the professor of the Department of Biology of BelSU Alexander Prisny, the praying mantis is the cockroach's closest relative. But unlike him, he is not content with garbage. He lives not in apartments, but in meadows and steppes. And it’s larger in size: the local specimen reaches 6 cm in length, and the Chinese one is twice as large.

The praying mantis is widespread on all continents. But there are very few representatives of some species left, so they are listed in the Red Book.

Scare the size

The green, also known as common, mantis often imitates grass, making it difficult to see. Large bulging eyes provide great review. A fly, a wasp or a butterfly gapes, and he has already noticed it. The head is triangular, the neck is so flexible that it can turn back, like an owl.

These awkward predators are terribly gluttonous. Always Ready to attack forces them to hold their front legs with tenacious spikes, like scissors. They eat everything from aphids to beetles. Females are not afraid to grab prey much larger than themselves, such as a frog.

Some species have wings, but more often they use them to intimidate enemies. And the praying mantis has many enemies.

Photo from pixabay.com

“Young individuals can be eaten by predatory beetles (ground beetles), spiders, and lizards. Adults include some birds, for example, shrikes,” says Prisny.

The trick of the praying mantis is not to run away, but to scare the enemy. When he is attacked, he tries to visually become larger. To do this, it sharply throws out its wings and hisses, swaying from side to side.

Deadly Lover

A plot that could be used for a horror movie is commonplace for praying mantises. They mate only once. The female is always larger than her suitor. And this fatal lady will most likely not only break his heart, but also bite off his head. Right during the action.

“She eats it if she’s hungry,” explains the professor. – This food is used for the development of eggs and the formation of the egg capsule. Simply put, for procreation.”

Scientists believe that the female praying mantis is inclined to cannibalism by an overwhelming amount of sex hormones. Here the gentleman is also exhausted and cannot resist... And for further development the ootheca (form of laying) of eggs requires large amounts of protein.

Having chosen the lady of his heart, the future father sneaks up on her from behind for several hours. And then he tries to quickly leave the place of the orgy in order to avoid being a snack. The likelihood of losing your head is reduced if the chosen one before starting love games ate heavily. But the paradox is that only a hungry female releases a huge amount of attractive pheromones. It is for such fragrant ladies that mantises arrange real duels not for life, but for death. True, their lifespan is already short - these insects live on average about a year.

Is it possible to keep praying mantises at home?

IN Lately It has become fashionable to keep praying mantises in terrariums. They are practically safe for people - only a large female can bite through human skin.

“It’s better to have males. And in the second half of September and in October, when the breeding season is over,” advises Prisny.

You will have to feed your pet only live and twitching food. Crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, and flies are perfect. He will definitely eat his neighbors less than himself. It is also not worth housing two males together.

It is believed that praying mantises are field orderlies. In the Soviet Union at one time they wanted to use them industrially as biological protection from pests of agricultural plants. True, this idea had to be abandoned, because the praying mantises ate and beneficial insects, the same bees. In the USA and Asian countries they are still kept in homes to control flies.

Some peoples believed that by frightening a praying mantis, a person would shorten his life. It was believed that his bite would save him from warts, and he himself was able to predict the future and show the way: the insect should extend its upper leg in the direction in which it should go.

The ancient Greeks attributed to him the ability to predict the coming of spring. And in Rome, if anyone fell ill, they told him: “It was the praying mantis who looked at you.”.

The praying mantis played a cult role: its image was found on a Proserpine coin from Metapontus, next to the sacred ear of the Eleusinian mysteries.

In an engraving by the famous Dutch artist Mauritsa Escher depicts a praying mantis praying for the remission of sins of a deceased religious dignitary.

Mantis is the name given to one of the styles of Chinese martial arts, Wushu. It was invented by a Chinese peasant who watched a predator hunt.

Anna Morozova

1. These fascinating insects - formidable predators. The angelic pose of the praying mantis is deceptive. If a bee or fly happens to land within range, the praying mantis will grab the unfortunate insect with lightning speed. Sharp spines line the predatory front legs of the praying mantis, allowing it to firmly grasp its prey. Some praying mantises catch and eat lizards, frogs and even birds. Who said that in the food chain no errors occur?! Praying mantises are carnivorous insects with a very impressive appetite.

2. The praying mantis has prominent front legs that are bent and held together at an angle, as if in a praying position. Large group These insects are called prayer mantises. Mantis is a genus of praying mantises. The word mantis (from the Greek mantikos) is a soothsayer or prophet. These insects really look mysterious, especially when their front legs are intertwined as if in prayer.

3. They have triangular heads, worn on long neck, elongated chest. Mantids can turn their heads 180 degrees. No other insect can do this.

4. Yes, the praying mantis has five eyes! Do you think two eyes would be enough? But not for the praying mantis! These insect species have a five-eyed configuration. In addition to two large eyes, there are three small eyes located in the middle of the head. They use these eyes to detect light, observe movement, and for deep vision.

I had no idea praying mantises were so colorful! Orchid mantis

5. Mantises have one ear located on their stomach.
Five eyes and one ear? Mantis are crazy! The mantis' hearing organ is located in the middle of their abdomen, between the last set of legs. Their ear is not like ours - it hears only loud, high-pitched sounds, and perceives other sounds as vibrations.

6. Not all praying mantises have an ear, but only those that, as a rule, do not fly. Mantis species that lose their wings and walk can be easy prey bats! At night, bats feed on any flying insect. To avoid being eaten, the praying mantis suddenly falls to the ground.

7. When praying mantises are born, they go through three stages of development: eggs, nymph and adult. In spring they appear as nymphs. Nymphs look very much like miniature versions of their parents. The lifespan of a praying mantis is less than one year.

8. There is a praying mantis that looks like an orchid
This is not just a pink and white insect, but a rather amazing mantis that looks like a flower. A species of praying mantis that looks like an orchid is called Orchid mantis with Latin name Hymenopus coronatus. Seeing is believing

9. The praying mantis does not shy away from danger.
The insect is not that big. But in order to avoid the threat, while staying in place, they will try to look bigger: they raise their wings, stand up and stretch out as high as possible. They may sway from left to right to appear more intimidating. It works? Actually, yes! Animals that aren't particularly interested in eating them consider the praying mantis to be a bit of a fishy prey item. Are they poisonous? Additionally, some praying mantis species have very bright colors.

Mantis and baby crocodile - meeting

10. A female praying mantis can have up to 1,000 babies.
After mating, she will produce eggs called ootheca. Each can contain 200 eggs. She can produce 6 of them in total! Not every species of mantis is as productive; some species produce significantly fewer eggs. However, to produce many babies, a female praying mantis does not need to mate more than once - one drunken mistake with long-term consequences.

11. Mantis will attack prey that is much larger than them. Most species of mantises are not easily intimidated and will go to the end. An amazing feat considering that the praying mantis has no venom at all. He just needs to hold on to his prey and start eating it. Spiders have it much easier, as they quickly paralyze their prey with poison. There have been reports of mantises catching hummingbirds, mice, huge spiders and other equally sized mantises. Asian mantises, Chinese mantises, African mantises and boudwit mantises are capable of this tactic. Thinner varieties rely more on camouflage and less on bold attack when hunting. Ghost Mantids take great risks when attacking.

12. Most praying mantises live in the tropics. The approximately 2,000 species of mantids described to date are almost all found in the tropics. Most often, praying mantises are exotic species. Mantis (Mantodea) represent more than 2,400 species in approximately 430 genera in 15 families. The most big family praying mantises - Mantidae (“mantids”). Mantis are distributed throughout the world in temperate and tropical habitats.

Photographer Igor Sivanouiks /Two beautiful praying mantises

13. Mantids are closely related to cockroaches and termites. Praying mantises, termites and cockroaches are believed to all descend from a common ancestor. Entomologists group these insects in the superorder Dictyoptera, due to their close evolutionary relationships.

14. Mantid eggs overwinter in cool conditions. The female mantis lays her eggs on a branch or stem in the fall and then protects them with a wax-like substance that she secretes from her body. This forms a protective egg case in which her offspring will develop over the winter. Mantid eggs are easy to spot in winter when leaves fall from bushes and trees. But if you bring the mantle otheca into your warm home, you'll soon find several hundred little praying mantises.

15. Female mantises sometimes eat their boyfriends. Yes, it's true, in 30% of cases, female Mantees actually kill their sexual partners. In some cases, they behead the poor guy before he even consummates his relationship. As it turns out, a mantid man becomes an even better lover when his brain, which controls inhibition, is separated from the ventral ganglion, which controls the actual act of copulation. Most cases of sexual killing of praying mantises occur, as scientists believe, not because the man fucks poorly, but because the partner needs protein from the male body, which will later help the eggs develop.

16. Mantids are relatively young in terms of evolutionary time. The earliest fossil mantids date from Cretaceous Period, between 146-66 million years.

17. Masters of disguise. Typically green or brown, they are well camouflaged on the plants they live among. Praying mantises lie in ambush and patiently stalk their prey. Butterflies, crickets, grasshoppers and other insects are usually their unfortunate recipients.

Sources:
Borror and DeLong An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 7th Edition, Charles A. Tringhorn and Norman F. Johnson
Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity, Stephen A. Marshall
Encyclopedia of Insects, 2nd edition, edited by Vincent H. Resch and Ring T. Cardet
Evolution of Insects by David Grimaldi and Michael S. Engel
Experienced Mantises: Hidden in Simple Sight, Roberta Brett, Smithsonian Zookeeper Newsletter, September-October 1997
The Death of Order: A Comprehensive Molecular Phylogenetic Study Confirms Termites are Eusocial Cockroaches, Daegan Enoard, George Beccaloni and Paul Eggleton. Biol. Lett.22 June 2007, vol. 3 no. 3 331-335

Well, first of all, why “mantis”? The name is quite strange, to be sure. The name of the insect was not invented by anyone, but by Carl Linnaeus himself, the founder of the entire biological table, a great mind. So, when he finally paid attention to the praying mantis, he exclaimed: “Tja, det ser ut som på mantis, för fan!”, which translated from Swedish means “Well, it looks like a praying mantis, damn!”

If you look at a praying mantis, you can really see that the pose of this insect is similar to the pose of a praying person. That is why Linnaeus gave the name Mantis religiosa or “religious priest”, in our opinion.

As for official judgments about the praying mantis, they are as follows. Praying mantises are not just a type of insect, but an entire suborder, with many species. The length of the praying mantis is about 5 cm. In American films, praying mantises sometimes reach five meters in length.

The color of the praying mantis varies from green to brown. The praying mantis has wings, but it rarely uses them, I will tell you why later. Females, for example, use their wings only in exceptional cases. Until a certain point, scientists even believed that the female’s wings were necessary only for intimidation. Then, after observing, they finally realized that the female could fly. True, they still don’t understand why praying mantises need to fly.

Well, not that much later. I actually wanted to reveal all of Mantis's cards at the end, but I can't wait to talk about Mantis' origins now. Official scientific opinions about the origin of the praying mantis are extremely uninteresting. All the same nonsense: the origin of life in water, the first amphibians, arthropods, insects, modifications that led to the development of the praying mantis, blah, blah, blah.

There is also an unofficial version of the origin. It is so obvious that even a child will agree with it, unlike inert scientists. To truly understand the praying mantis, it is enough to look at the face of the praying mantis for a couple of minutes.

Here, watch for two minutes, try to understand.

Do you see? I am sure that you also understood the whole truth, namely that the praying mantis is a creature of unearthly origin. It only looks like an insect, but if you look at it more closely, a version of alien origin immediately comes to mind.

Do not rush to accept the skeptical side of scientists, let's look at some facts together.

Again, let's take coloring. I already said that it varies, but I didn’t say how much. It varies so much that it is impossible to say definitely what color the praying mantis is. Of course, we are used to thinking that the praying mantis is green. This is true, but the mantis is green only when it sees leaves. Since scientists, in their own foolishness, continue to look for praying mantises only on leaves, they have no idea about the ability of the praying mantis to choose any color they please.

How about this coloring?

Look around you and remember that praying mantises are everywhere. They disguise themselves so that we don’t see them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist, right? Look carefully, perhaps a praying mantis is hiding among yours office papers or sits right on your brand new iPhone. Or maybe he was hiding in an indoor flower.

Don't forget to look in the barn.

Another fact that is known to many. No, I can’t talk about him calmly. The fact is that after sex, the female eats her partner. Do you think this is normal? Imagine a herd of cows. They graze and eat grass peacefully. Then a young bull comes, moo-moo, all that. Here he is climbing on his love, here is sex. And then! The cow turns around and eats the bull whole! One, one, and it's done. And then he continues to peacefully eat grass.

If this is not enough for you, then I will continue. Not only do females eat males after sex. This can be understood: vitamins, nutrients, necessary for the development of the praying man... But how to understand the fact that before sex, the female bites off the male’s head? Before sex, not after. Imagine a herd of cows. However, it’s not necessary, you have no idea. A headless bull on a cow... Really, you shouldn’t even think about it.

In fact, the female does not always bite off the head and does not always eat the male. That is, this is an optional condition. And this only adds new questions like “What’s the point then?!” Scientists keep silent about these questions, while agreeing that in earthly nature this is an exceptional case.

This act of cannibalism inspired not only me. For example, one Frenchman Marcel Rolland wrote about it this way:
“I will tell you below how the praying mantis devours its victims, but I must say that this drama, played out in the mysterious, apparently serene canopy of a hedge, was for me my first meeting with the Relentless. Thus I learned the terrible law of force to which the world is subject.”

There he said a lot more, one might even say that the praying mantis shook his psyche.

Scientists differ so widely in their assessments of this act that they sometimes go too far in their reasoning. So one of the scientists proved the thesis that the very fact of biting and nibbling is not so new in nature. Even among people you can find analogies. In short, I wrote all these words just to quote the words of this scientist:

Myths and folklore do not remain in debt: with their data they confirm the material of individual imagination. First of all, in the North Asian and North American regions there are widespread myths about women with toothed vaginas who kill, cutting off the penis, those who dare to have sexual intercourse with them.

Friends, I will take a short break and then continue. The devouring female praying mantises do not allow me to just pick up and continue my story.

Of course, there will be skeptics who will say “oh well! Common insect! But it's not that simple. Remember the cartoon about kung fu panda? So, there, among the kung fu masters, along with the tiger and the monkey, there was a praying mantis. An unheard of honor for a small insect, don’t you think?

The fact is that the Chinese were among the first to realize that something was wrong with the praying mantis. Just in case, they began to praise him. They not only drew a praying mantis, it’s not that strange, especially for the Chinese, they came up with a whole style martial art– praying mantis style. Not even a style, but a whole direction of styles, including: “Plum Blossom Mantis”, “Seven Star Mantis”, “Six Coordination Mantis Boxing” and other equally funny names.

We must give credit to the Chinese for understanding the true nature of the praying mantis.

Mantises have wings, but they rarely use them. They do not need them for hunting; mantises have other methods of hunting. They also do not use flight for defense, as they are well camouflaged. Thus, wings are not needed for daily activities. It can be assumed that wings are necessary for migration, but nothing is known about flocks of flying mantises.

Possible solution this fact lies in one of the songs:

I read in one book,
That when it gets bad,
And an ice ax and a saw will rise above the world
They will be removed from the branch
And they will excite you and me,
Under tight wings.

Why do praying mantises have such a strong influence on people’s consciousness? And they really have a strong influence, all over the world. I already talked about the Chinese with their praying mantis style. Other peoples also had special ideas about this insect.

Thus, in Africa there is still a cult of the praying mantis, which is considered a god and founder of the worlds. In Europe they also paid attention to it Special attention. Attitudes towards the praying mantis are ambiguous; in some cultures it is extolled, in others it is considered a demonic creature.

Perhaps the praying mantis earned such attention through its ability to look. Mantis, perhaps the only insect, which has the ability to move its head in the direction of its gaze. That is, unlike other insects, he not only sees, but also looks.

Generally speaking, the number of beliefs and myths associated with the praying mantis is amazing.

Another interesting fact. The praying mantis gets along just fine without a head and can even have sex. But that is not all. Not only can he walk and balance without a head, but without a head he can pretend to be dead. That is, being dead, he can pretend to be dead.

This incredible feature, as well as the ability to perfectly change one’s appearance, prompted one African tribe to the creation of a myth about how a praying mantis turned into a dead antelope. The hunters found him and prepared to cut him with stone knives. But even then the mantis remained motionless. Then they started cutting pieces off the antelope. And only after this, the antelope again turned into a praying mantis. It was an elder pilgrim, he collected all his cut-off parts, attached them to himself and began to run with his paws raised (well, you know how he can do that), grab and eat children.

This is such a mythical African horror.

The common mantis is an insect belonging to the family of true mantises. This is the most common representative of the species in Europe.

Description

This is a fairly large insect. The common mantis, whose sizes range from 42 to 52 mm (males) and from 48 to 75 mm (females), is a predator. It has forelimbs adapted for holding food. The praying mantis is part of the cockroach order, forming numerous species, consisting of three thousand subspecies.

His name was given by Carl Linnaeus, the great taxonomist, who noticed that the pose of the praying mantis, when it sits in ambush, is very reminiscent of a person folding his hands in prayer. Therefore, the scientist named him Mantis religiosa, which translates as “religious priest.”

Coloring

You are probably familiar with it from your school biology textbooks common mantis. Its color type is very variable, ranging from yellow or green to dark brown or brownish-gray. Usually it corresponds to the habitat and matches the color of the grass, stones and leaves.

The most common color is green or white-yellow. Older individuals have a paler outfit. Dark brown spots appear on the body with age. This is explained by the fact that the body stops producing amino acids important for life: methionine, leucine, tryptophan, etc. In laboratory conditions, when these substances are added to food, the life of the insect almost doubles - up to four months. This is the maximum period that an ordinary praying mantis can live.

Biological features

These insects have well-developed wings, they fly well, but males move this way only at night, and during the day they occasionally allow themselves to flutter from branch to branch. The praying mantis has four wings. Two of them are dense and narrow, and the other two are thin and wide. They are able to open up like a fan.

The head of the praying mantis is triangular, very mobile, connected to the chest. It can rotate 180 degrees. This insect has well-developed front legs, which have powerful and sharp spines. With their help, it grabs its victim and then eats it.

The photo of the common mantis, which you can see below, clearly demonstrates that this insect has well-developed eyes. It has excellent vision. A predator, while in ambush, monitors its surroundings and instantly reacts to moving objects. It approaches the prey and grabs it with its strong paws. After this, the victim does not have the slightest chance of survival.

Unlike males, who feed on rather small insects, heavy, large females prefer their fellows of the same, and sometimes larger, size than them. Interesting story, associated with told E. Teal. He observed a funny situation on the street of one of the American cities. Car traffic was stopped. The drivers watched with interest the duel between the sparrow and the praying mantis. Surprisingly, the insect won the fight, and the sparrow had to retreat from the battlefield in shame.

Photo of the common mantis, habitat

The praying mantis is quite widespread in southern Europe - from Portugal to Ukraine and Turkey. He did not bypass the islands either Mediterranean Sea(Corsica, Balearic, Sicily, Sardinia, islands Aegean Sea, Malta, Cyprus). It is often found in Sudan and Egypt, in the Middle East from Iran to Israel, and on the Arabian Peninsula.

The habitat of the common mantis also covers the southern regions of our country. Presumably introduced to the eastern United States, to New Guinea, in the 1890s. From these territories he populated almost all of America and southern Canada. At the very beginning of this century, the praying mantis was discovered in Costa Rica. There is unofficially confirmed evidence that the common mantis was found in Jamaica, Australia and Bolivia.

In Europe, the northern border of the range passes through countries and areas such as Belgium and France, Tyrol and southern Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria, southern Poland and Slovakia, forest-steppe regions of Ukraine and southern Russia.

Scientists note that at the end of the 20th century, the range began to expand to the north. The number of these insects has increased significantly in northern Germany, and the common mantis has appeared in Latvia and Belarus.

Features of reproduction

It must be said that it is not easy for a male praying mantis to start a romantic relationship: a female, larger and stronger, can easily eat an unlucky suitor, especially during the period when she is not ready to mate or is too hungry. Therefore, the common praying mantis (male) takes all precautions.

Mating season

Having noticed the fair half, the male begins to creep up on her much more carefully than on the most dangerous and sensitive prey. The human eye cannot detect his movements. It seems that the insect is not moving at all, but it is gradually approaching the female, trying to come from behind. If the female turns in his direction at this moment, the male freezes in place for a long time, while swaying a little. Biologists believe that these movements are a signal that switches the female's behavior from hunting to love.

This rather peculiar courtship can last up to six hours. It is better for the gentleman to be a little late for this date than to rush a minute. The common mantis breeds at the very end of summer. In Russia, mating occurs from mid-August to early September. The influence of sex hormones provokes an increase in aggressiveness in the behavior of the insect. At this time, cases of cannibalism are common. main feature common praying mantis - the female devouring the male after, and sometimes during mating.

There is a version that a male praying mantis cannot copulate if he has a head, so sexual intercourse in insects begins with an unpleasant procedure for the male - the female tears off his head. However, more often mating occurs without victims, but after its completion the female eats the male, and even then only in half of the cases.

As it turned out, she eats her partner not because of her special bloodthirstiness or harmfulness, but because of the great need for protein at the first stage of egg development.

Offspring

The common mantis, a photo of which you can see in this article, lays eggs in ootecae. This special shape laying characteristic of mollusks and cockroaches. It consists of horizontal rows of eggs, of which there can be two or more.

The female fills them with a foamy protein substance, which, when hardened, forms a capsule. Typically, up to 300 eggs are laid. The capsule has a fairly solid structure that easily sticks to plants or stones, protecting the egg from external influences.

Stored inside the capsule optimal humidity and temperature. In the ooteca, eggs cannot die even at temperatures down to -18 °C. IN temperate latitudes the eggs overwinter, and southern regions incubation period is a month.

Larvae

Thirty days later, larvae emerge from the eggs. There are small spikes on their surface that help them get out of the capsule. After this, the larvae molt. Later they shed their skin and become similar to adults, but without wings. The larva of the common mantis is very mobile, it has a protective coloring.

In most areas of distribution, these hatch in late April - early May. In two and a half months they molt five times. Only after this do they become adult insects. The process of puberty lasts two weeks, then the males begin to look for their other half for mating. Mantises live in natural conditions for two months. The males die first. After mating, they no longer look for prey, become very lethargic and quickly die. They live only until September, and females survive them for a month. Their age ends in October.

Lifestyle and diet

The basis of the praying mantis' diet is insects. The largest individuals (mainly females) often attack lizards, frogs and even birds. The common mantis eats its prey slowly. This process can last about three hours, and the food is digested over the course of a week.

The praying mantis can hardly be called a lover of hiking. Only towards the end of summer do males radically change their lifestyle: they begin to wander around. When faced with its fellow insect, the insect gets into a fight, and the loser has a chance not only to die, but also to become dinner for the victorious opponent. Of course, on these journeys, male mantises are not looking for tournament glory at all, they need the love of a beautiful female.

The habitat of the common mantis is a tree or bush, but sometimes they can freeze on the grass or on the ground. Insects move from tier to tier, so they can be found both at the top of the crown and at the foot tall tree. And another one interesting feature: The mantis reacts exclusively to moving targets. He is not interested in stationary objects.

This predator is very voracious. An adult insect eats up to seven centimeter-sized cockroaches at a time. It takes approximately thirty minutes to eat the victim. First it eats soft tissues, and only after that it starts to eat hard ones. The praying mantis leaves limbs and wings from the cockroach. Softer insects are eaten whole. Typically, the praying mantis prefers When it has enough food, it lives on one tree throughout its life.

Praying Mantis - most interesting insect. Do you know about this?

The praying mantis has 5 eyes

Yes, five eyes! You think two is enough, don't you? Not for praying mantises! They have large compound eyes - the ones you'll notice easily. And three small simple eyes located in the middle of the head. They are used to detect light, whereas big eyes see movement and volume. In many other insect species, vision is similar.

Five eyes: two large and three simple ocelli (ocelli) in the middle of the head

Some praying mantises have one ear on their abdomen

Five eyes but one ear? Yes they are crazy! Not every species has developed hearing, only some. The auditory organ is located in the middle of the abdomen, between the last pair of legs. Their ear is different from ours because it can only hear loud high sounds. Other sounds may only be felt as vibrations and not as actual hearing. Why does the praying mantis only want to hear high-pitched sounds? To avoid bats! When a praying mantis flies, it can easily become their victim. At night, bats feed on any flying insects, finding them using echolocation. They emit a high-pitched squeak of a certain pitch and listen to the sound reflected from a flying insect and returned back. When a flying mantis hears a high-pitched squeak, it means it is nearby. bat. In order not to be eaten, he makes an unexpected movement and falls to the ground, hoping that the bat is not ready for such a turn and will miss the prey. Species that have lost their wings and therefore move only by walking have also lost the ability to hear.

There is a praying mantis that looks like an orchid

When I found out about this, I was amazed. It's not just a pink and white mantis, which is amazing in itself, it actually looks like a flower. Including petals, a small green border and some streaking lines on the back. This species is called the orchid mantis (in Latin, Hymenopus coronatus). To see, you have to believe... More photos can be found on the view page.

Orchid mantis pretends to be an orchid

The praying mantis does not back down from danger

The praying mantis is not that big. Even large species are not that large, no more than 11 cm in length. Of course they don't match in strength an ordinary dog or a cat. Do you think the praying mantis cares? Not at all. Sometimes better protection is an attack. Instead of running away from the threat, he will stay put and try to look bigger. He will raise his wings, spread his front legs and try to stretch out as high as possible. Perhaps it will even sway left and right to appear more intimidating. It works? Actually, yes! Animals that are not particularly interested in eating a praying mantis or are still inexperienced are a little suspicious of prey that does not run away. It may be poisonous, inedible or dangerous. It's better to be careful and not get too close. In addition, some species of mantises have developed in the process of evolution bright color inside front legs or lower wings. At rest it is not visible, but during an attack it flashes, frightening the aggressor.

Female Stagmomantis limbata scares the camera

Following short video shows a praying mantis attempting to intimidate its attacker with its characteristic "dance" movements.

One female praying mantis can have up to 1000 children

Did you know that one holy woman can give birth to more than a thousand children? After mating, she will lay egg capsules called oothecae, each of which may contain over 200 eggs. And she can lay down about 6 pieces! Not every species is so productive; some have much fewer eggs in the ooteca. To “give birth” to so many children, she does not need to mate again every time - once is enough.

Mantises will attack prey that is much larger than them

Most praying mantises are not shy and go for big kills. If they spot prey, they will attack it. They will not be stopped by such a trifle that the prey turned out to be much larger than a predator. Amazing courage if you remember that the praying mantis has no poison. It simply holds onto its prey using force alone and starts eating it. This is much easier for spiders to do because they quickly paralyze the victim with venom. There are reports of wild mantises catching hummingbirds, mice, small lizards, huge spiders and other mantises of equal size. This is how they only act large species eg Asian, Chinese, African or short-winged mantises. Smaller species rely more on camouflage and use more cautious hunting methods. You won't see a fiddle or ghost mantis attacking large prey.

This video shows a large female hunting a spider and then almost being killed by another female of the same species.