Speaking of praying mantises, you are certainly no stranger. If you've seen the cartoon "Black Cat Sheriff", you will remember a clip where the mantis bride actually ate the groom on the wedding night, which sounds a little scary, right?
Is the content in that cartoon reliable? In nature, will the mantis bride really eat the groom? The entomologist Samadhi has revealed the answer to you in her insect memology class, so let's hear what the entomologist has to say.
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Hello, I am the Three Butterflies, welcome to the exquisite lecture "Insects". Let's talk about praying mantises today.
There are many species of praying mantises, about 2400 species worldwide. They are very recognizable in appearance, with triangular heads, large eyes, slender antennae, and a long neck connected to the flat body. Just like this is shown on the audio cover now.
Praying posture of the praying mantis (cloud-eyed mantis) - Trisphenodata (photo)
Their most distinctive feature is the sickle-like forefoot, which can be folded flexibly and has spikes. This type of foot is called a catch-foot, and as the name suggests, it's a good tool for catching prey, and insects with this catchy foot usually eat meat.
But the praying mantis often lifts its feet and stands still, as if in prayer. Because of this posture, the ancient Greeks believed that praying mantises had the superpowers of prophets and could divinate. In France, where Fabre is located, people also think that the praying mantis looks like a nun wearing a sackcloth skirt and praying to God.
But Fabre knew that the mantis with a moving appearance and elegant posture was actually a ruthless killer. They lurk quietly on the plants, and once they see their prey, they will reveal their ferocious nature, and all the live insects that can be eaten will not be spared, even their own kind.
Fabre's focus at that time was on thin-winged praying mantises, which means that the wings are very thin. They are relatively large and are also distributed in China.
Thin-winged mantis Image source: de.wikipedia.org
But it's too hard to observe the life of a praying mantis in the wild, and you can't just keep running after it without eating or drinking. So Fabre kept the praying mantises inside the metal mesh so that they could be observed continuously.
During the breeding process, Fabre found that the female mantis was large and particularly gluttonous, while the male mantis was thin and small. If they are kept together, the male mantis is quickly eaten when there is not enough food to eat.
In order to fill the stomachs of female praying mantises, Fabre had to go out every day to catch locusts and grasshoppers. What is infuriating is that Fabre has spent a lot of effort to catch the prey, but the female mantis loves to ignore it, eating two bites and throwing it aside, it seems that Fabre took good care of them, they will not be like this in the wild.
But don't look at the praying mantis so greedy, their combat effectiveness is not weak, in the face of locusts larger than its size, the praying mantis is not afraid at all, they put the forewings to the sides of the body, the hindwings are fully open, like two sails on the back, the stomach is still shaking, as now the audio cover shows. This posture is a warning, if you provoke praying mantises in the wild, you will also see them make this pose, which is a protest to you.
Vigilance of the Praying Mantis - Trisphenanthrene (Photo)
Seeing such a praying mantis, the locusts can be frightened. At this time, the praying mantis immediately swung a large knife at it, pressed the prey firmly on the spike of the folding knife, and then clicked from the "neck" position to start enjoying the feast.
That Fabre kept these fierce female mantises together, and the result was predictable. In the beginning, they were able to coexist peacefully, eating their own prey. But then their bellies grew larger and larger, and they needed more and more food, and they began to kill each other. Two female praying mantises fight fiercely, tearing each other apart, and the loser is eventually eaten by the winner.
This did not work, and Fabre redistributed the cells, pairing the praying mantises together, one female with the other male, and the cell became a marriage room. In the marriage room, the male mantises began to move, they spread their wings and flailed their confessions, and then pounced on the female mantis and began to mate.
But after mating, the female praying mantis turned her head and grabbed her husband, starting from the neck to lower her mouth, eating the husband only his wings. So what if another male mantis were put in at this time? Fabre found that even female praying mantises, who had already mated, could accept a second husband and eat the second husband after mating. The most exaggerated female mantis changed seven husbands in two weeks and ate them all. Therefore, the plot in "Black Cat Sheriff" still has a certain scientific reason, and there is no blind fabrication.
Will the male mantis be willing to be eaten? Actually, no, male mantises will also be afraid and will run away, but Fabre will keep them all in a hood, and they have no way to escape. In the wild, some male mantises are able to escape after mating.
Of course, if the female mantis has eaten enough before mating, the male mantis also has a certain chance of escaping the disaster. But regardless of whether the male mantis is eaten or not, it completes the task of breeding offspring with the female mantis.
After mating, the female mantis is ready to lay eggs. In order to ensure safety, their spawning time is often selected in the middle of the night. The spawning process is very interesting, they lay eggs and their bodies hang upside down, secreting some mucus from the end of their stomachs, which mixes with the air to form a spongy foam.
The female mantis swings her stomach from side to side to stir the foam, stirring and laying eggs as it does. The eggs that are produced layer by layer will eventually form an oval,hard-woven egg sheath. I put you a picture of a praying mantis egg sheath on the audio cover, and you can see what it looks like.
Inside the egg sheath are dozens to hundreds of eggs. With the protection of the egg sheath, the eggs inside will not be directly exposed to predators outside, and it is easier to survive the cold winter.
Mantis egg sheath - Trisphenanthrene (photo)
But is it absolutely safe to have the protection of the egg sheath? Nor is it. In nature, there is always one thing and one thing. There is an insect called a praying wasp that lives specifically in the egg sheath of a praying mantis. The mantis wasp body was only a few millimeters long, as now shown on the audio cover. Female bees have an egg laying apparatus longer than their own body and can burrow into the mantis egg sheath like a needle and lay the eggs into the mantis's eggs. As soon as their children hatch, they eat the eggs of the praying mantis.
Mantis wasp - Trisphenanthrene (photo)
Those eggs that survive well hatch small mantises in the early summer of the second year.
The hatching of the mantis egg sheath is a magical process, on which a translucent circle will emerge, followed by two large black eyes, looking like a translucent water droplet, which is the newly hatched mantis nymph. I also put you a picture that you can see if they are very much like water droplets.
Newly hatched mantis nymph - Trisphenodata (photo)
The droplet-like nymph kept swinging, growing a little with each shake of the head, and soon the skin covered by the nymph's chest cracked, and the nymph's body broke free from it.
At this time, the nymphs are already free to move, and they will hang down and fall to the ground along a silk.
However, the newborn mantis is very fragile, and there are often uneasy and kind ants waiting for the rabbits, waiting to eat these tender and delicious foods. Where is the little praying mantis the ant's opponent? Some just crawled out of the egg sheath and were bitten by ants and taken away, looking pitiful.
Those who survive in the end will run out to find food and make themselves stronger. Every time they molt, they grow and become stronger, and as long as they survive the weakest period and feather into adults, they can dominate in front of many insects.
Of course, even adults can not be taken lightly, praying mantises still have many natural enemies, such as birds, frogs, lizards and so on.
In addition, the praying mantis has a terrible enemy, that is, clematis. If you accidentally stomp a praying mantis to death, you may see a slender, wire-like bug emerge from the mantis's stomach, which is a clematis.
Clematis lay eggs in water, and if other animals eat clematis larvae, they can become infected.
Praying mantis parasitic by clematis - Trisphenacycensis (photo)
Praying mantises can get into trouble if they drink this water, or if they eat prey infected with clematis. Clematis absorb nutrients in the mantis and grow larger and larger, eventually forcing the mantis to crawl to the water's edge. At this time, they will drill out of the body of the praying mantis and return to the water to continue to breed the next generation.
Praying mantises parasitized by clematis may not necessarily die, but their growth will be affected, for example, some will have a phenomenon of male and female ambiguity, that is, male mantises have the characteristics of female mantises, which is equivalent to what we call "transgender".
But you may be worried, will clematis parasitize in the human body? This can be assured, clematis is not too much of a threat to people, as long as you don't drink raw water outside, you don't have to worry.
At this point, the mantis, the cold killer, will tell you that the female mantis will really eat her husband like in the cartoon. But this ruthless killer also has his own natural enemies, such as mantis bees, birds, lizards, and clematis.
The scene in the cartoon turns out to be real, and the mantis bride will really eat the groom.
In fact, in the insect world, there are many more magical things like this.