- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Often it's so camouflaged that it totally blends in with its habitat. It can rotate its head 180 degrees--and nothing, it seems, can escape its view.
Praying mantises are not considered biological pest control agents because basically they'll eat anything they can catch: from your favorite pollinators (bees and butterflies) to your favorite beneficial insects (lady beetles and assassin bugs), your favorite bird (hummingbird) to pests (stink bugs and lygus bugs) to syrphid flies, green bottle flies, and wandering caterpillars that happen to cross its path.
And they'll eat one another...catch me if you can!
Truly, they are not picky eaters like little humans who scowl at a food, push it around their plates, or "accidentally" drop it on the floor for the dog to grab.
"Over 2,000 mantid species occur in the world, mostly in tropical and subtropical regions," according to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Program (UC IPM). "At least 9 mantid species occur in California. The Arizona or bordered mantid (Stagmomantis limbata), Bistanta mexicana, California mantid (Stagmomantis wheeleri =S. californica), Litaneutria ocularis =Litaneutria obscura, and small gray mantid (Litaneutria pacifica) are native species. Chinese mantid (Tenodera sinensis), European mantid (Mantis religiosa), Mediterranean mantid (Iris oratoria), and South African mantid (Miomantis caffra) are introduced."
"Mantids (mantises) are among the largest insects," UC IPM says. "Adults generally range from 2 to 5 inches (5–12 cm) long. Adults and nymphs (immatures) are elongate and usually brown, green, or yellowish; a single species can have all 3 color phases, such as the California mantid, Stagmomantis wheeleri =S. californica."
A mantis has two spiked forelegs that enable it to grasp and subdue its prey. It's a death grip...or a dinner grip...Ever seen a praying mantis "cradle" its prey?
This mantis, below, is a Stagmomantis limbata. Dinner was a bee. Earlier it preyed on a green bottle fly.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
He's a survivor.
His sisters and brothers didn't eat him when he emerged from the egg case. In fact, he probably ate some of his brothers and sisters.
He has managed to elude his predators: bats, birds and spiders.
Yes, our praying mantis is very much alive and quite well, thank you.
It's early morning and the praying mantis is a lean green machine as he climbs a green cactus from his base camp, a flower bed of pink lantana. He's not engaging in mountaineering for the sport of it or for the summit view. He's climbing the cactus to better position himself to find prey: to ambush an unsuspecting butterfly or bee.
He's not concealed but he's perfectly camouflaged. And he's cunning.
He stops, swivels his head 180 degrees--praying mantids can do that, you know--and proceeds to climb to the top of his Mount Everest.
It's a sight you don't see very often. First, because praying mantids usually blend into their environment. Second, how many times have you seen a green praying mantis climb a green cactus? And third, this cactus climber has something in common with the plant: the needlelike "ouch" factor. The cactus is spiny. The praying mantis has spiked forelegs to grasp its prey.
The mantis reaches the summit. He folds his forelegs as if in "prayer." Well, not quite. He looks as if he's begging for his breakfast.
It promises to be a good day, a top-of-the-morning day.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
What a perfect camouflage!
Have you ever seen a green praying mantis hiding among the green growth in your garden?
Concealed. Disguised. Camouflaged.
The praying mantis is a patient insect. It will lurk for hours in its familiar prayer-like position, ready to ambush passing prey, usually an unsuspecting insect like a honey bee, bumble bee, sweat bee or grasshopper. Then with a movement faster than you can say "What the..." it will strike, grabbing its prey with its spiked forelegs. The target, unable to escape the deadly grip, becomes its meal. No catch and release here!
There's a reason why many folks have never seen a praying mantis. It's like trying to find Waldo, especially when the mantis is camouflaged in the vegetation and lying motionless.
Wikipedia tell us that the mantids, in the order Mantodea, comprise more than 2400 species and about 430 genera in 15 families worldwide. Some 20 species occur in North America, according to entomologist Gilbert Waldbauer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Author of The Handy Bug Answer Book, Waldbauer writes that the introduced Chinese mantis is the largest "at a length of asmuch as four inches."
Some praying mantids have been known to catch hummingbirds, and you know how quick hummers are. See a photo published by National Geographic and watch a scene on YouTube.