- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
He's a male Mantis religiosa, as slim as a string bean, and scanning his environment.
We're accustomed to seeing see the native Stagmomantis limbata in our garden, and not M. religiosa, the European mantis, which is found throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America.
"Males are often found to be more active and agile, whereas females are physically more powerful," according to Wikipedia. "Adult females are generally too large and heavy for their wings to enable a take-off...The great variation in the coloration of M. religiosa from different shades of yellow, brown, green, and sometimes black has been the cause of numerous hypotheses and studies for over 100 years.However, no generally accepted answer about reason, benefit, or mechanism of the coloration or the change of coloration has been found."
The male is apparently quite good at avoiding sexual cannibalism during mating. Wikipedia says: "Instead of just observing them, sexually mature males approach sexually mature females when they see them, but due to the physical superiority of the females, males of M. religiosa face certain challenges in doing so. When a female spots a male, she is very likely to attack and kill him (see also: Sexual cannibalism). Therefore, males can be observed to be very slow and cautious in their approach; after spotting a female, the male usually freezes and turns his head to look directly at her. Since the foveae in his eyes face directly forwards, he has the most accurate and detailed view of her and can watch every one of her moves. He then proceeds to approach her from behind. Males can be observed to stop as soon as the female turns her head or even moves. Mantids are very good at detecting moving structures, but are almost unable to see immobile objects. Using this ‘stop-and-go' tactic, the male stalks closer to the female. This can often take several hours. Depending on the environment, males sometimes show a light ‘rocking'-behavior which is believed to imitate the leaves of surrounding plants to blend in with the background. Males doing this had no higher probability of being detected and attacked, which supports this hypothesis of concealment."
We asked praying mantis scientist Lohit Garikipati about this European species. He holds a bachelor's degree from UC Davis and a master's degree from Towson University, Md., and is now PhD-bound at the Richard Gilder Graduate School in the American Museum of Natural History in the Jessica Ware lab.
"In my time at Davis I observationally did--they hold a special place for me as they were the first species that ever kept and raised in captivity!" said Garikapti, who shared his mantises and expertise at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open houses. "But they also highlighted to me the potential impact of invasive species on both native mantis species but also prey populations--as low foliage and ground dwelling predators, they have a different niche from S. limbata, and may be contributing to the decline of native Litaneutria (even as they have for the California mantis, Stagmomantis wheelerii). Adult females have also been observed feeding on fence lizards, without much apparent effort as they can take lizards even larger than they are. All of these factors combined with their cryptic ooth (ootheca) deposition and large clutch size have made them one of the most if not the most successful mantis species on the planet - they tolerate both cold and hot climates being found in deserts to temperate forests and now have a Holarctic distribution."
Garikipati related that in the Ware lab, he will be "investigating the evolutionary relationships of praying mantises and what drove their diversity."
We look forward to hearing more from Lohit! As for our buddy, the male M. religiosa, he took flight. (See video on YouTube).
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, gets queries about two-headed butterflies.
A two-headed butterfly? A wonderful and surprising find of a new species? And suitable for publication in ZooKeys, that "peer-reviewed, open-access, rapidly disseminated journal launched to accelerate research and free information exchange in taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography and evolution of animals?"
And a discovery guaranteed to bring fame and fortune, or at least worldwide headlines?
No, not a two-headed butterfly. Just a male and a female butterfly keeping busy.
This week we spotted a two-headed butterfly on a blanketflower, Gaillardia, in a Vacaville pollinator garden. The butterflies? Gulf Fritillaries. They're also known as "the passion butterflies," as their host plant is the passionflower vine, Passiflora.
Ah, the warmth of the sun, the autumn colors, a slight breeze, and two butterflies forming a two-headed butterfly.
Life doesn't get any better than that if you're a couple of butterflies seeking to create progeny--or a photographer engaging in "insect wedding photography."
The bride and groom didn't notice the camera. They were too busy keeping busy.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You may have lost track of the hours, days, weeks and months due to the coronavirus pandemic, but how can you forget National Pollinator Week?
Especially if you've ventured out in your yard, garden or park and witnessed the pollinators doing what they do best.
National Pollinator Week, set June 22-28, is a "time to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about what you can do to protect them," according to the sponsor, Pollinator Partnership.
As they write on their website: "Thirteen years ago the U.S. Senate's unanimous approval and designation of a week in June as 'National Pollinator Week' marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator Week has now grown into an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles."
So, what can you do to observe Pollinator Week? The Pollinator Partnership says this year won't be a "typical Pollinator Week."
"We urge everyone to hold a socially distant, appropriate event. In an effort to lighten the load on state governments during this time, we are not pursuing formal state proclamations this year, but will continue to post proclamations that we do receive. Moreover, we encourage everyone to go outside and spend some time with the bees and butterflies that inspire hope in many."
Great idea.
And, when we think of Pollinator Week, we think of the honey bee totally dusted with pollen on a blanket flower, Gaillardia, in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.
The bee just couldn't get enough of the pollen.
We just couldn't get enough photos. Bravo, Ms. Honey Bee!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you've been thinking about blanketing your garden with blanketflower (Gaillardia), you're in luck.
The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden is hosting a spring plant sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, March 10 at its Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive, located across from the School of Veterinary Medicine.
And Gaillardia will be available.
The one-ace nursery "has an incredible selection of Arboretum All-Stars, California natives, and thousands of other attractive, low-water plants perfect for creating a landscape alive with environmentally important pollinators," officials said.
Gaillardia is a favorite among pollinators, including honey bees, bumble bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and syrphid or hover flies. You'll see them buzz, fly or flutter over to it. It's a member of the sunflower family Asteraceae, and native to North and South America. Named for M. Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate and botany enthusiast, the plant is commonly called "blanketflower"--probably because it's reminiscent of the colorful blankets crafted by the native American Indians.
The genus includes dozens of species. Among those available at the UC Davis plant sale are Gaillardia 'Celebration'; Gaillardia 'Red Sun'; and Gaillardia x grandiflora or 'Arizona apricot.'
The plant sale is a "Membership Only Appreciation Sale," but you can become a member online now or at the gate on Saturday. Members receive 10 percent off their purchases and an additional $10-member appreciation gift. New members will receive an additional $10-off coupon as a thank you for joining. Davis Botanical Society members also receive a 10 percent discount on their plant sale purchases.
Here's a list (PDF) of what's being offered.
Plant them and they (the pollinators) will come. And sometimes you'll see a little predator-prey interaction--like a praying mantis lying in wait--but that's okay, too. Everybody eats!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Whenever folks post photos of praying mantids, their readers expect to see prey.
You know, the hapless bee or butterfly that made the fatal mistake of getting too close to those spiked forelegs.
This praying mantis (below) appeared to have been a hapless victim of another predator. It, still however, kept that praying mantis pose as it tried to find prey on a blanketflower (Gaillardia). And it still rotated its head 180 degrees.
Praying mantis belong to the order, Mantodea, which includes more than 2400 species and about 430 genera in 15 families, according to Wikipedia.
"They are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. Most of the species are in the family Mantidae," Wikipedia tells us. "Females sometimes practice sexual cannibalism, eating their mate after, or occasionally decapitating the male just before mating."
Did you know that the closest relatives of mantids are termites and cockroaches (Blattodea)? And that they are sometimes "confused with stick insects (Phasmatodea) and other elongated insects such as grasshoppers (Orthoptera), or other insects with raptorial forelegs such as mantisflies (Mantispidae)?" Check out Wikipedia's entry for praying mantids.
Praying mantids live about a year. This one lived about five hours before it expired.
But not before it gave a honey bee the fright of her life.