Monarch Monitoring Project - 10/8/08

The Monarch Monitoring Project Presents the Insect of the Week:

PRAYING MANTID

Thanks Jon Kauffman for the photo

It's time for another exciting blog about the "Insect of the Week"! This week we are featuring the Praying Mantid. Praying mantids are common around Cape May, but may be easily overlooked because of their cryptic "leaf-like" appearance. There are three different species of mantids found here:

1. The European Mantid (Mantis religiosa)
2. The Chinese Mantid (Tenodera aridifolia)
3. The Carolina Mantid (Stagmomantis carolina) - our only native mantid

All three of these mantid have similar habits of feeding. They use their cryptic appearance to blend in with leaves and stems near flowers. Then when an unsuspecting bee, wasp, or butterfly visits the flower, the mantid will use it's raptorial front legs to quickly grab the insect. After it has the insect firmly in its grasp, it will begin to chow down (see below)!


Above is a photo I took of a Carolina mantid eating an American lady (Vanessa virginiensis). Although mantids often eat butterflies and other beloved insects, they can be extremely helpful at getting rid of unwanted pests. Both the European and the Chinese mantid were introduced in the early 1900s to control common garden pests. You can actually even buy the egg cases of the Chinese mantid at garden stores! Mantids are actually one of the few predators of the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexipus). Below is a picture of a Chinese mantid eating a monarch (hopefully the monarch wasn't tagged!).

Photo by Michael O'Brien

Mantids have also gained notoriety because of their strange and violent courtship process. After mating the female will often eat the male mantid. The females are usually bigger, and the male mantis has little hope of getting away if she decides that she's hungry. This after fertilization meal, gives the female an extra boost of nutrition and energy that she will use make an egg case (an ootheca in entomological terms). It seems like a bad deal for the male mantid, but he does pass his genes on before he is devoured. Evolutionarily he still wins!

Unfortunately I don't have enough room or time to talk about all the amazing aspects of mantids. To learn more consult your local library, there are many great books about mantids out there!

European mantids mating (RUN Mr. Mantid, RUN!)