They are one of the most peculiar-looking creatures in a phylum replete with the odd, strange, weird, and curiously unusual. If you are looking for a posterchild for Arthropoda, in the Uniramia class and the Dictyoptera order, then the praying mantis (often called a mantid) is your star.
With its Marty Feldman eyes, its space alien antennae, its spindly stature, its leaf-like wings, and those Edward Scissorhands weapons out front, this is a killing machine posing as a cartoonish character.
Cherished for their ability to devour numerous pests such as aphids and beetles, these carnivores also have a taste for bees, butterflies, and even small mice and birds. The female mantis, one of the largest creatures in the insect world, will sometimes eat the male after mating.
“They consider anything that moves or flies to be a potential meal, so they go crazy over everything they encounter,” said local entomologist Russell Lamp, who said he has had mantids draw blood from his arm when he has encountered them. “They have spines on their legs and are able to grab and crush their prey.”
Mantids often sit camouflaged in shrubs, landscaping, and vegetation and ambush their prey, using their sharp, raptorial front legs to grasp and capture their meals. They will consume their prey alive using strong chewing mandibles that are capable of breaking the tough exoskeleton of other insects.
Two large compound eyes allow the mantids to see up to 60 feet and stalk their prey.
“They might look like they are praying from the position they are in, but what they are is cocked and ready to attack,” Mr. Lamp said. “They are not praying.”
Before dying in the fall, female mantids lay their eggs on twigs, stems, branches, or other surfaces and then protect them with a hard foam coating that also serves as insulation through the winter. Tiny nymphs emerge as the next generation in the late spring, looking exactly like miniature adult mantids.
The young mantids are very aggressive feeders, sometimes devouring each other but also consuming many problem insects such as aphids. After six to eight molts, the new mantids reach the adult stage.
Contact Blade outdoors editor Matt Markey at mmarkey@theblade.com or 419-724-6068.
First Published September 3, 2017, 5:03 a.m.
