The Praying Mantis, also called mamboretá, santateresa or tatadíos, is an arthropod mantodean insect that belongs to the mantids family. This small insect has a wide geographical distribution between Eurasia and Africa and in turn has different subspecies around all regions. It was brought to the United States of America in 1899 and although it was introduced, it is the official insect of the state of Connecticut. Here in this article we will teach you a little more about it.
Mantis Religiosa
It is one of the most mysterious insects that exists and that can cause more intrigue in the world. Despite their strange and threatening shape, with closed arms and giant eyes for their tiny size, these insects do not represent any risk to any human being or to any animal, unless you are part of their diet.
Within the average of what most insects measure, the praying mantis has a medium size, approximately 6 or 7 cm, with a long thorax and extremely thin antennae, almost invisible to the naked eye. It has two large compound eyes and three small simple eyes. The head of this insect can turn up to 180º. Its front legs, which it always keeps folded like two small arms, have spines to make it easier to hold onto its prey.
These are kept quite solitary, except for their breeding season, when male and female mantids seek each other out only to mate. When two males present themselves for a single female, they fight to the death to reproduce with her. Females are usually larger and more dominant than males, they regularly end up eating the male during or after mating.
The praying mantis is usually green or brown, presenting different shades throughout its body. Their final adult color is usually almost totally determined by the environment where they live during their last molt, a good example would be to visualize how they turn yellow if they have been in dry straw and green if they have been in fresh grass. It should be noted if it is a unique hearing system, since it is the only known animal that has only one ear, which is located in its thorax.
Features
Within the world of insects, the praying mantis has a large size, considering that they can measure up to 12 cm long. Not to mention that the females are usually larger, consequently they are usually dominant over the males of this species. Its main distinctions are its long antennae that come out of its head and its elongated and thin thorax.
When analyzing the shape and body of this insect, the prayer shape that its small arms seem to have is truly interesting, perhaps for this reason it is called a praying mantis. These same small arms have small spines that together make their arms look like small saws, this makes it easier for them to capture and retain their prey. As previously mentioned, its color is completely determined by the environment where the mantis was during its last molt.
All this makes this insect so difficult to see, since they are extremely good at camouflaging themselves thanks to their skin color, which is the same as their environment. One of the main differences between these praying mantises and the other species of the mantidae family is that they can turn their heads up to 180º to be able to see their surroundings even behind their back. Their life expectancy tends to be around a year, they go through six skin molts to finally reach adult size.
These majestic insects are born from small eggs that the females lay, they can lay hundreds in each clutch they make. Once these are born and are young, they have exactly the same appearance as an adult mantis for a much smaller size.
Contrary to popular belief, the praying mantis is not a poisonous insect at all and much less does it sting or do anything against humans. In addition, it is a great ally to control certain pests in very open spaces. Based on this we could suggest that it is quite beneficial to have a praying mantis in your own garden.
Behavior
To change their skin, the praying mantis hangs itself on a branch, right there they shed the exuvia, which would be the old change of skin; after this they leave through the anterior part of the last cuticle. The praying mantis is a carnivorous insect and is a great predator, despite being quite passive, as it is capable of waiting for its prey for a long time, which is almost totally immobile, finally it attacks by surprise and with a speed that not even humans can observe.
Praying mantises are quite solitary insects, normally they live completely independently of others of the same species. The only time they have contact with others of their species is at the time of reproduction, and as mentioned before, if two males meet for a single female, they will fight to the death to reproduce with the female in question; Unfortunately, females often eat the male's head at the end of breeding, although this is not as common.
Food
These insects hunt in a very passive way, they wait for their prey almost motionless with their serrated arms in a prayer position, and once the prey approaches them they turn their heads to see it, even if it is behind their back, then from this the praying mantis launches with everything to attack to devour its prey. It is worth mentioning that there is a martial art that is strongly inspired by the way these mantises attack. Once the mantis grabs its victim, it begins to feed on it immediately, despite its prey trying to escape.
The speed of the legs of this insect is so great that they can catch a fly in mid-flight. The prey they catch can be eaten in its entirety or only in part, they only leave as remains, the legs or wings, which the same mantids drop to the ground. They are capable of hunting and feeding on small reptiles, very small mice, moths and even hummingbirds.
Obviously these mantids have a clear preference for live animals, but many that live in captivity can easily feed on dead insects, as long as they are approached with their serrated legs or mouth, although their hunting abilities will be greatly diminished .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7pjpEjJV2M
Reproduction
In the reproductive stage, the females emit pheromones that strongly attract the males, this would be the only moment where these two meet. At this time the females tend to be extremely aggressive, as a result of this attitude, the females come to eat the males in the middle of the sexual act or after it. It is popularly believed that this behavior is quite common, when the reality is that in free mantises they do not usually do this, contrary to those that live in captivity, which are quite prone to this behavior.
These insects last copulating approximately two hours. During this mating, the male jumps up to the back of the female, to stick his antennae with hers, once this is done the male puts his genitals in contact with those of the female in question, then when he finishes, he deposits a capsule of his sperm, or rather, spermatophore inside the female.
The females lay their young's eggs in the fall, and the young hatch around the spring. They lay these eggs in small heaps, which look like a little foam; These piles adhere to a branch and that foam, after a while, hardens, serving as protection for the small eggs. In these small mounds they can house up to 200 or 300 hatchlings, unfortunately few of these end up surviving, since these same hatchlings practice juvenile cannibalism to survive among themselves.
Habitat
This great insect has its origin in Asia and Europe, and as previously mentioned, man artificially introduced it to North America. Praying mantises can be found throughout Europe, northern Asia throughout North America, certain parts of central Africa, and also in the southernmost parts of Argentina and Chile. This mantis is a field insect and can also be found in orchards, pastures or very open places with little influx of humans in general.
This is definitely not an insect that you can find walking in the center of any city. These praying mantises like to camouflage themselves with things in their environment, such as leaves, grass, and the branches of trees or bushes. Only in this way, praying mantises ensure their survival and the possibility of effectively hunting all their prey.
The Praying Mantis as a Pet
In recent years these mantises have become famous as pets, despite their unusual large size and the fact that they are carnivorous insects, which tend to hunt prey of the same size or even larger, such as hummingbirds. In order to get this insect as a pet, you will need a good size terrarium, it should not be so small that it cannot move freely, but it cannot be so large that it cannot find its prey.
The way to feed it must be with live insects, so that it can hunt them, and thus not lose its same survival and hunting skills. The terrarium in which she will live should be sprinkled with fresh water once a day, all so that the terrarium stays moist and the mantis can drink the drops of condensed water there. The way to acquire them is to hunt them in a garden or buy the eggs in a store specialized in this, without forgetting that if they are adopted as eggs, they must be separated, otherwise they will fight each other.
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