When the green stripe is thick and shady, the crown horns are raised to their arms. —— "Four Titled Miscellaneous Paintings, Two Praying Mantises" Ming Dynasty: Ou Daren.
The meaning of this sentence is that when the trees are leafy, you can see the praying mantis lying on the branches to exercise his arms and tentacles.
Praying mantises have been full of magical colors since ancient times, and in ancient times it can be said: "Golden jade full of halls and long corridors." "It means that you own an emerald mantis, which means that your family will have so much money that there will be no place to put it, and it will be piled up in the corridor outside." In ancient Greece, people regarded the praying mantis as a symbol of wisdom and strength, and Europeans would tell you that just by looking at where the mantis's front chest pointed, you can find where you are going; In Japan, samurai carved the image of a praying mantis on their swords; In mainland Chinese martial arts, the famous mantis fist is still preserved.
Praying mantises are ancient insects dating back at least about 110 million years
According to atlas journey network, 110 million years old mantis fossils have been found in northeast Brazil, because insect fossils are extremely rare, so this mantis fossil is also very precious.
Fossils of 110 million-year-old praying mantises have been found in northeastern Brazil
The earliest mantises — another name for insects in the family Mantis — date back to the Jurassic period (1996-145.5 million years ago), and the study authors write that the Cretaceous period (14.55-65.5 million years ago) was the period when mantis population diversity began to emerge. The fossil is more complete than any other specimen of this species, revealing previously unknown details of early mantis body parts that were suitable for predation.
This is a prehistoric mantis map based on fossils.
Praying mantises, also known as knife mantises, are the most common insect handles.
The praying mantis has a small triangular head that can be flexibly rotated 180 degrees, a pair of large compound eyes and 3 small single eyes on the head, and a pair of extremely responsive antennae. On the slender body, it has a fat abdomen, which is covered with semi-leathery forewings and membranous hindwings. We can often see praying mantises closing their serrated "big knives" on grass or branches, waiting for their prey to come to the door. Praying mantises can be called insect catchers in the insect world. They are carnivorous insects that specialize in killing pests, and a praying mantis can eat more than 700 mosquitoes in two or three months. And their hunting action is very fast, from swooping to catching in just 0.05 seconds.
The insect kingdom has a knife guard
The praying mantis is an insect that is good at ambushing. The praying mantis is extremely patient, and it can lurk motionlessly, waiting for careless prey to enter its predatory circle. While waiting, the most typical posture of the praying mantis is a pair of front legs raised, which looks like they are praying. Its front legs are used to catch prey, the leg edges have saws, the legs are easily connected, and they cooperate with each other when hunting, and the movement is extremely fast and dizzying.
Praying mantises often change their form and color in order to blend well with the environment. Some mantises resemble dead leaves, while others resemble flowers. Butterflies and other insects flew in to collect honey, but they were scared half to death.
Praying mantises will eat their prey slowly and alive. Usually, praying mantises are very wasteful of food. They eat only a little and discard most of it.
For female praying mantises, male mantises are just another food. Therefore, if the male wants to mate with the female, he must carefully approach it. Male praying mantises always crawl very slowly towards females, moving only 30 centimeters per hour. If the male is found by the female at this time, or if their mating is disturbed, the female will usually eat the male, usually from his head.
Mantises eat their husbands
If the female mantis is already full, the male mantis will not eat during mating. Female praying mantises eat male mantises to fill their stomachs and supplement their nutrition to better conceive offspring. At the same time, the female mantis eats the male mantis during mating, which also ensures that the eggs are fertilized. The nervous system suppression center of the male mantis is located in the head, once the head is bitten off, the semen in the male mantis will flow into the female mantis, so the female mantis mates while nibbling on the male mantis from beginning to end, which can make the eggs in the body more fully fertilized. Hungry is the main motivation for mantises to eat their mates, wild mantises are usually hungry, so it is easy to eat male mantises, while domestic female mantises rarely eat male mantises after mating after eating. Female mantises, which have been hungry for 5-11 days, will pounce on them and eat them after seeing them, without even having the heart to mate. Female praying mantises that are hungry for 3-5 days will eat male mantises during mating or after mating, and female praying mantises that are not hungry do not want to eat their mates.
Han Liu told the "Saying Garden, Zheng Zhi": "There are trees in the garden, and there are cicadas on it, and the cicadas are high in sorrow and drink dew, and the praying mantises are also behind them; The praying mantis commits to the cicada, and does not know that the yellow finches are also in its side. ”
This is the provenance of the praying mantis catching cicadas in the back.