Common praying mantis - an insect belonging to the family of true praying mantis. This is the most common representative of the species in Europe.
Description
This is a fairly large insect. The common praying mantis, whose dimensions 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 a numerous species, consisting of three thousand subspecies.
The name was given to him by Carl Linnaeus, the great systematist, who noticed that the pose of the praying mantis, when he sits in ambush, is very reminiscent of a man who folded his hand in prayer. Therefore, the scientist called him Mantis religiosa, which translates as "religious priest."
Coloring
You probably know the common mantis from school biology textbooks. Its coloration type is very variable, ranging from yellow or green to dark brown or brown-gray. Usually it corresponds to the habitat, matches the color of grass, stones and leaves.
The most common color is green or white-yellow. In older individuals, the outfit is paler. Dark brown spots appear on the body with age.spots. This is due to the fact that the production of amino acids important for life ceases in the body: methionine, leucine, tryptophan, etc. In laboratory conditions, when these substances are added to feed, the insect's life almost doubles - up to four months. This is the maximum life a common praying mantis can live.
Biological features
The wings of these insects are well developed, they fly well, but this is how the males move, and only at night, and during the day they occasionally allow themselves to flit 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 like a fan.
The head of the praying mantis is triangular in shape, very mobile, connected to the chest. It can rotate 180 degrees. This insect has well-developed front paws, which have powerful and sharp spikes. With their help, it grabs its prey and then eats it.
The photo of the common praying mantis, which you can see below, clearly demonstrates that this insect has well-developed eyes. It has excellent vision. The predator, being in ambush, monitors the environment and instantly reacts to moving objects. He approaches the prey and grabs it with strong paws. After that, the victim has no chance of survival.
Unlike males that feed on rather small insects, heavy large females prefer their counterpartsthe same, and sometimes even larger, than they are. An interesting story related to the female praying mantis was told by E. Teal. He observed a funny situation on the street of one of the cities of America. Car traffic was stopped. The drivers watched with interest the duel between the sparrow and the praying mantis. Surprisingly, the insect won the battle, and the sparrow had to retire from the battlefield in disgrace.
Photo of common praying mantis, habitat
The praying mantis is quite widespread in southern Europe - from Portugal to Ukraine and Turkey. He did not bypass the islands of the Mediterranean Sea (Corsica, Balearic, Sicily, Sardinia, the islands of the Aegean Sea, M alta, Cyprus). Often found in Sudan and Egypt, the Middle East from Iran to Israel, the Arabian Peninsula.
The habitat of the common praying mantis also covers the southern regions of our country. Supposedly introduced to the eastern United States, to New Guinea, in the 1890s. From these territories, he settled almost all of America and southern Canada. At the very beginning of this century, the praying mantis was discovered in Costa Rica. There are not officially confirmed data that the common praying mantis was found in Jamaica, Australia and Bolivia.
In Europe, the northern border of the range passes through such countries and areas as Belgium and France, Tyrol and southern Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria, southern Poland and Slovakia, the 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. Significantly increasedthe number of these insects in northern Germany, the common praying mantis 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 groom, especially at a time when she is not ready to mate or is too hungry. Therefore, the common praying mantis (male) takes every precaution.
Mating season
Noticing the beautiful half, the male begins to creep up to her much more carefully than to the most dangerous and sensitive prey. His movements are not detected by the human eye. There is a feeling that the insect does not move at all, but gradually it approaches the female, while trying to come from behind. If the female at this moment turns in his direction, 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 loving.
This rather peculiar courtship can last up to six hours. It’s better for a gentleman to be a little late for this date than to rush for a minute. The common praying mantis breeds at the very end of summer. On the territory of Russia, they mate from mid-August to early September. The influence of sex hormones provokes an increase in aggressiveness in the behavior of the insect. During this time, cases of cannibalism are not uncommon. The main feature of the common praying mantis is that the female devours the male after, and sometimes duringmating.
There is a version that the male praying mantis cannot copulate if he has a head, so the 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 in the first stage of egg development.
Offspring
Common praying mantis, the photo of which you can see in this article, lays eggs in ootheca. This is a special form of laying, characteristic of molluscs and cockroaches. It consists of horizontal rows of eggs, which can be two or more.
The female fills them with a foamy protein substance, which, when solidified, forms a capsule. As a rule, up to 300 eggs are laid. The capsule has a rather hard structure that easily adheres to plants or rocks, protecting the egg from external influences.
Optimal humidity and temperature are maintained inside the capsule. In the ooteca, eggs cannot die even at temperatures down to -18 °C. In temperate latitudes, eggs hibernate, and in the southern regions the incubation period is a month.
Maggots
Thirty days later, larvae emerge from the eggs. On their surface are small spikes that help them get out of the capsule. After that, the larvae molt. Later they shed their skin and become likeon adults, but without wings. The larva of the common praying mantis is very mobile, it has a protective coloration.
In most areas of distribution of these insects, the larvae hatch in late April - early May. In two and a half months, they molt five times. Only after that they become adult insects. The puberty process is two weeks, then the males begin to look for their other half for mating. Praying mantises live in natural conditions - 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
Insects form the basis of the praying mantis diet. The largest individuals (mainly females) often attack lizards, frogs and even birds. The common praying mantis eats its prey slowly. This process can take about three hours, and over the course of a week, the food is digested.
Mantis can hardly be called a lover of hiking. Only by the end of summer do males radically change their way of life: they begin to wander around. Faced with his brother, the insect enters into a fight, and the loser has a chance not only to die, but also to become dinner for the victorious opponent. Of course, in these journeys, male mantises are not looking for tournament glory at all, they need the love of a beautiful female.
Mantis habitatcommon - a tree or shrub, 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 of a tall tree. And one more interesting feature: the praying 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 about thirty minutes to eat the victim. First, he eats soft tissues, and only after that he proceeds to hard ones. The praying mantis leaves limbs and wings from the cockroach. Softer insects are eaten whole. Usually praying mantis prefers a sedentary lifestyle. When he has enough food, he lives on the same tree throughout his life.
