Mantises, like their close relatives, the cockroach, are relatively ancient insects, with a large number of fossils of mantis insects found in Burmese amber dating back 0.99 billion years. According to the study of phylogeny, many scholars in the current academic community believe that the mantis insect is evolved from the cockroach insect, and the extinct odd-winged insect can actually be regarded as a very special cockroach, that is, the intermediate transition species between cockroaches and mantises.
Praying mantises, on the other hand, have a long history and are widely distributed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > long racial history</h1>
Mantis insects are also a very familiar class of insects. Since ancient times, people around the world have made more detailed observations and records of this insect. The ancient Chinese had many names for mantis insects, such as Shi Niang, Danglang and Jiaolang, among which the best sounding was "Tianma".
The term "mantis" was recorded in the Huainan Zi Shi Zexun, and we can understand that the word "mantis" appeared at least in the Western Han Dynasty and has been used ever since. In ancient Europe and other places, it was observed that praying mantis insects often folded their forefoots in front of the body, resembling the movements of their prayers, so they named such insects "prayers", "prophets", "prophets" and so on.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > widely spread around the world</h1>
Mantis insects are the only pure carnivorous insect group in the cockroach division, and in addition to many invertebrates, there are even records of predators of amphibians, small reptiles, and birds. Their distribution is relatively extensive, in addition to the cold polar environment and other environments, praying mantises almost all over the world, of which tropical and subtropical regions are the most diverse.
In terms of environment, mantis insects prefer environments with more vegetation, but some also appear in wastelands with sparse vegetation, such as the short-winged mantis distributed in Xinjiang, China.
Mantis insects usually reproduce sexually to produce the next generation, but very few have the phenomenon of parthenogenesis, that is, no male insects are needed to produce offspring. For a long time, when it comes to the reproduction of praying mantises, many people will think of their "killer" behavior during mating.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the truth about the mantis butcher</h1>
It is true that some of the mantises in the order Mantis do have a scavenger behavior, but it is worth noting that not all mantises have a scavenger behavior. The reason why people mistakenly believe that as long as it is a praying mantis, it is because in the earliest documents that recorded this habit, the praying mantis observed by naturalists belongs to the species of thin-winged mantis. At the time of recording, it was originally intended to indicate that such behavior existed in the genus Thin-winged Mantis, but the genus name of thin-winged mantis was spelled exactly the same as the English word "mantis", so it was mistakenly translated as Mantis. Many people observe praying mantises in order to verify this phenomenon, and the most common and easiest to observe taxa are almost all groupes with killer behavior such as knife mantises and axe mantises, and over time, the theory that all mantis insects have killer behavior has spread.
In fact, in the wild, most male praying mantises are very careful when mating. When the breeding season comes, female praying beetles release sex hormones. After the male mantis is attracted, it will not go directly to the female mantis but will hide around the female mantis and choose the right time to mate. The mating time of praying mantis varies greatly from taxon to taxon, and is generally proportional to its body size. Some small mantises usually have a mating time of 2-3 hours, while large mantises can last up to 10 hours or more. Regardless of the length of mating time, once mating is over, the male mantis will immediately leave the female to avoid the danger of being caught.
And the mantises that eat their husbands are actually just because they are too hungry, and they usually don't eat their own kind.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > natural enemies of praying mantises</h1>
Although mantis insects are ferocious predators, they are by no means without natural predators in nature. Not to mention that birds and the like will prey on praying mantises, many invertebrates also play the role of natural enemies of mantis insects.
Among them, there are two types of invertebrates that have the greatest impact on praying mantis insects. The first group is a group of animals that are also of the insect family, belonging to the hymenoptera long-tailed wasp family. In China, about 20 species of mantis insects have been found. When their females are about to lay their eggs, they usually stop at the female mantis and wait for the female mantis to lay eggs.
When the praying mantis first lays eggs, the egg sheath is foamy. At this point, the mantis will use its slender spawn tubes to lay eggs into the mantis egg sheath. Although a praying mantis egg can basically provide nutrients for only one mantis wasp, many eggs in the egg sheath will still support many mantis wasps at the same time.
The second group is animals belonging to the order Clematis, which parasitize in the bodies of mantis insects. Clematis eggs exist in water, and the larvae hatch very small and cling to shallow shoals on the shore. When an insect drinks water, these clematis larvae enter the insect body. When the praying mantis preyed on these insects, the clematis successfully entered their bodies. When these clematis mature and are about to lay eggs, they secrete a special substance. When this molecule enters the host nervous system, it activates a portion of the host's proteins. These active proteins drive the host to instinctively move toward low terrain. As a result, many praying mantises jump into streams. When clematis perceives the water environment, it burrows out of the host's abdomen to lay eggs.
In fact, not only these two types of animals, there are many creatures in nature that can kill praying mantises. For example, some insect species of the Coleoptera family can harm the mantis egg sheath; Some species of Hymenoptera capys can hunt mantis nymphs and even adults. Of course, the destruction of the habitat of mantis insects by humans, as well as environmental pollution, have also had a great destructive impact on them. In summary, although the praying mantis is the killer of the insect family, it also lives in the cracks.
The life of a praying mantis insect goes through three stages, namely eggs, nymphs and adults. Eggs grow and develop within the sheath of the egg, which is called a mantis. The egg sheaths of praying mantis insects provide many very favorable conditions for eggs. First of all, the egg sheaths of many praying mantises have the same shape and color as the surrounding environment, which is conducive to hiding themselves. At the same time, the mantis egg sheath can also keep warm and warm, which makes the overwintering survival rate of mantis eggs greatly improved. Although mantis egg sheaths are laid at high altitudes, newly hatched mantises come with their own "fuses", which allows them not to be swept away by the wind, or fall and fall.
The nymphs of the praying mantis are very similar to those of adults, but they do not have fully developed wings and appear only in the form of wing buds. There are some nymphs of praying mantis insects that have eye spots on the back of their abdomens that can frighten the world. In general, mantis nymphs need to molt 7 to 8 times to feather into adults, and the feathering time is generally in the early morning. During the adult stage, the praying mantis will complete the important task of reproducing offspring. Usually the lifespan of mantis insects is about one year, which is not a long life in the insect family.