- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
No doubt you've seen a praying mantis egg case, or ootheca, on a tree, shrub, fence or post.
But have you ever seen one attached to a clothespin on an outdoor clothes line?
So here we were Thursday afternoon, hanging freshly laundered dog blankets on the clothes line.
We grabbed one clothespin after another, carefully fastening Fido's favorite blankets to the line to dry in the 80-degree temperature.
One more reach....Whoa! What's that?
Can't use that one. There's a ooth on it.
A praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, had apparently pinned her hopes to a clothespin. Or maybe that was her PIN number?
"Too funny," commented Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. "What a weird place to put your ooth."
Our little gravid gal must have climbed the eight-foot-high clothes pole last fall; walked the line (ala Johnny Cash?); and discovered the "perfect place" to deposit her ooth--right above a patch of Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifola) buzzing with bees and fluttering with butterflies.
"I've seen egg cases on outdoor furniture, predator guards on duck boxes, on buildings between bricks, trees, and even garden implements like pots, watering cans, and tools," said praying mantis expert Andrew Pfeifer, who now studies horticulture/landscape design at North Carolina University. "It's a Stagmomantis limbata ooth for sure; the hatch rate will be 150 or less."
Oothecas don't usually hatch until around June, but with the temperatures soaring here in Vacaville, it could happen "even within the month," Pfeifer says.
In September 2018, we watched a praying mantis deposit her ooth a few feet from that clothesline. That gal chose a redwood stake. (See photos on Bug Squad blog).
Now we wait for the nymphs to emerge...and scramble to eat one another...and prey on bees and butterflies...and the life cycle begins.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Surprise! Surprise!
You never know what you'll see when you're strolling through the 100-acre UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, a treasure to students, faculty, staff and visitors.
Case in point: For the last several months, we've been admiring a Mexican grass tree, Dasylirion longissimum, a 10-foot tall drought-tolerant plant with long, needle-like leaves radiating from its trunk. So perfect. So exquisite. Kinetic art at its finest. Indeed, it's often described as an "architectural wonder" in the plant world. Scores of horticulturists in California and the southwest United States favor it as their focal point for their xeriscape landscape projects.
The plant is native to the Chihuahuan Desert, which extends from West Texas, through parts of New Mexico and Arizona, and into much of the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau. It can tower 15 feet in height.
Last week we noticed something different about its presence in the UC Davis Arboretum: a brown clump clinging to the faded green wiry spikes.
Could it be? It was. A praying mantis egg case or ootheca.
To protect it from "egg gatherers," we won't indicate the exact location. But it is clear evidence that a female praying mantis was there and she, no doubt, ambushed and devoured honey bees, syrphid flies and butterflies before mating and producing the egg case.
Mantis expert Andrew Pfeifer, administrator of the popular Facebook page, "Mantis Keepers," says the ooth appears to be the work of a Stagmomantis limbata.
California has only a handful of mantid species, Pfeifer says. The natives include Stagmomantis limbata, Stagmomantis californica and Litaneutria minor. Introduced ones: Mantis religiosa, Tenodera sinensis and Iris oratoria. “Typically you have pockets for native species where you see only one,” he says.
We usually begin seeing sizable mantids around July and continuing through October. We photographed this one, a Stagmomantis limbata, perched on showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) on Oct. 3, 2017 in Vacaville, Calif., as she nailed unsuspecting prey. In this case, a honey bee.
Her egg case is probably around somewhere....but she didn't lay it on our milkweed....or our Mexican grass tree....
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Hopefully, the male didn't lose his head.
Which begs a question asked by a reader: How long after mating does the female lay or produce her egg case (ootheca)?
"Usually it takes a week or two for temperate species, but tropical species can take much longer," says mantis expert Andrew Pfeifer of Monroe County, N.C., administrator for the public Facebook page, Mantis Keepers. "My Plistospilota guineensis took almost a month to lay hers. Mantis mating is a relatively straightforward process. A mature female will release pheromones to attract a male from a distance, hence why his antennae are longer and thicker. Upon getting close, he uses sight to find her. The male will slowly approach from behind, leaping on her back and using his antennae to calm her down by tapping her pronotum. Usually he will immediately curl his abdomen under her body until he meets her ovipositor, where he inserts his claspers. They will copulate for hours, with my longest pairing lasting two days. Eventually he will jump away, usually flying off to a safe distance from the female."
"The laying process itself can take anywhere from an hour to almost five depending on the size of the ooth," Pfeifer says. The Plistospilota guineensis ootheca is about as large as they can be, roughly equal to a large chicken egg."
Pfeifer, recently featured on Bug Squad, kindly shared his images of the adult mega mantids and a ootheca (see below) which is indeed enormous.
And how many mantids does he think might emerge from this mega mantis? "This one can contain upwards of 400," he says.
And THAT is a lot of mantids.
(Editor's Note: Praying mantids are among the insects featured in the live "petting zoo" at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, University of California, Davis, campus. The Bohart, part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will host an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18. The theme is "Parasitoid Palooza" (featuring jewel wasps, nematodes and flies) but mantids can also be seen and photographed in the petting zoo. The event is free and open to the public and family friendly. Bohart Museum associate and UC Davis student Lohitashwa "Lohit" Garikipati breeds mantids and donated part of his collection, including an orchid mantis, to the Bohart. He is secretary of the UC Davis Entomology Club, advised by forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey, and is a member of the Facebook page, Mantis Keepers).
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
And who isn't fascinated by those who study them, rear them and share their knowledge with others?
Meet “Mantis Master Keeper” Andrew Pfeifer, of Monroe County, N.C. He keeps about 70 mantids in his collection, educates others about this fascinating insect at Bugfest shows, and administers the Facebook page, “Mantis Keepers,” known as world's largest active mantid community, with nearly 7000 members.
“Mantids fascinate me for their predatory behavior more than anything else,” Pfeifer says, “but I also love to see the extreme morphology that many species have adapted to better camouflage in their environment. I've been fascinated with mantids and other arthropods since I was young, but have been keeping and breeding many species for about six years. “In that time I have kept over 25 different species from around the world in any shape, size, and color.”
Peruse the Mantis Keepers page and you'll be amazed at the wealth of information you'll find. Post a photo of a mantis and he and other administrators will identify it promptly. It's difficult to realize that Andrew Pfeifer is only 17 and a high school senior.
“Andrew has put together a terrific resource for anyone interested in mantids,” commented Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis. “We have quite a number of students and members of the public who love mantids and we point them to him.”
Pfeifer hopes to enroll at North Carolina State University, majoring in—of course!—entomology. Keenly interested in drawing public interest about these incredible insects, he coordinates the mantid exhibit at Virginia Tech's Hokie Bugfest every October, a project he began five years ago. He also assists at the larger North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences' Bugfest, held in Raleigh, N. C.
Pfeifer says his collection on mantids "is a a bit on the low side for the number of species with Phyllocrania paradoxa, Parasphendale affinis, and Hymenopus coronatus." He usually has about 60 mantids, but “that's subject to change with either new hatches, new species entering my collection, or sale of young nymphs to keep my collection running smoothly.”
“I have two new and rare species coming soon, Plistospilota guineensis and Epaphrodita musarum, which will increase the number to about 70 individuals. This doesn't include all the arachnids and other arthropods in my collection.”
At any given locality, Pfeifer says he can usually find a mantis in about 10 minutes if one is in the area. “Depending on the species and location, mantids can be quite easy to find. Species such as Tenodera sinensis seem to love man-made structure around disturbed and weedy areas. During the late summer, many mantids will hang out on goldenrod and other flowering plants, as they are after the many pollinators that visit the blooms. Male mantids may also be collected at light traps during the breeding season when they fly at night.”
“Adult male mantids typically begin flying after about a week or so from reaching maturity," Pfeifer says. "Most fly at night, and actually have a single ear between the second and third pair of legs that is designed to evade bats and their sonar. Females are not capable of flight for most species, and most that can fly are for short distances. Males usually fly for a couple hundred feet at a time.”
“They essentially eat anything,” Pfeifer says. “Moths and flies are among the favorites for my specimens. Grasshoppers often incorporate a large part of an adult female's diet. I've fed mine just about anything that isn't a vertebrate. They are not put off by insect defenses such as chemical sprays or vomiting, and are well equipped to handle things such as bees and wasps. They can deal with quite a few insect defenses, even able to disable stingers.”
Pfeifer usually feeds his collection cockroaches (Blaptica dubia or Blatta lateralis).
It's a myth that colors determine the gender of a mantis. “Many myths surround the mantids, most of which are merely superstition or made up,” he notes. “Colors do not determine the sex of the mantis, with both males and females capable of being different colors. Mantids are capable of changing the color of their body, but only after molting. A green mantid can turn brown in just one molt.”
It's also a myth that male mantids always lose their head during courtship or after mating. “Mantids can exhibit cannibalism during courtship, but this is not a common occurrence,” he points out. “It mostly occurs when the female has not had good access to larger prey, and needs the nutrition for egg development. I've had males mate with multiple females without incident, with a male Phyllocrania paradoxa holding the record at eight copulations.”
Temperate species can hatch, mature, breed, and die in four months in the North, but normally mantids live around six months to a year depending on species,” Pfeifer says, noting that “two of my female Phyllocrania paradoxa are going on 14 months old and are still in good health.”
Although mantids are not endangered, there is one threatened species in Southern Europe, he points out. “They are not illegal to keep or kill, but this one was used to avoid people harming them without need.”
He's kept several unusual native species found in the East, such as Brunneria borealis and Gonatista grisea. “Our native species are quite interesting, and not seen as often as the introduced. Most natives are only found down South, in states such as Florida, Texas, and Arizona. There are over twenty native species, with my favorite being the Texas unicorn mantid (Phyllovates chlorophaea).”
California has only a handful of mantid species, Pfeifer says. The natives include Stagmomantis limbata, Stagmomantis californica and Litaneutria minor. Introduced ones: Mantis religiosa, Tenodera sinensis and Iris oratoria. “Typically you have pockets for native species where you see only one,” he says.
Pfeifer welcomes visitors to the Mantis Keepers site. The introductory statement says it well: “Beauty and charisma of the beloved mantis...it's what binds us all.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Everybody eats in the pollinator garden. Everybody.
The pollinators in our garden in Vacaville, Calif., sip the nectar. They include honey bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, sweat bees, European wool carder bees, hover flies and assorted butterflies.
The predators eat, too.
It works like this: the pollinators eat the nectar; the predators eat the pollinators. Nature's way.
Today we watched a well-fed praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata (as identified by Andrew Pfeifer)--look, ma, there's a "mom" in Stagmomantis--lurking beneath the leaf of a showy milkweed, Asclepias speciosa. She was apparently waiting to snag a monarch butterfly, but agreeable to a menu change. So camouflaged was Ms. Mantis that she appeared to be an extension of the leaf. There she clung, motionless but oh-so-alert.
A monarch fluttered by, landing out of reach. Not so for the longhorn bees nectaring on the nearby African blue basil.
A longhorn bee, probably a Melissodes agilis, just wasn't quick enough to escape the Usain Bolt-like swiftness and the grasp of the spiked forelegs.
Ms. Mantis polished off the bee.
After her meal, Ms. Mantis climbed higher on the milkweed, slipping beneath another leaf to look for signs of "meal movement" below.
Well, at least she didn't nail that monarch. Not today.
