In the rural fields, there are often various insects. Among these insects, there are both beneficial and harmful insects. What I want to introduce to you today is a beneficial insect.
Anyone who has lived in the countryside will be very familiar with a larger insect with a yellow-brown or green body, a body length of about 7 centimeters, a triangular head, and a large knife-like forefoot, and this insect that everyone is very familiar with is the large knife mantis.
Large knife mantis, scientific name praying mantis. Because its forearms are raised like a praying maiden, it is also known as a "prayer worm".
The great knife mantis is an invertebrate and is a carnivorous insect, but it only eats live insects, and it does not eat dead insects. At the same time, the big knife mantis is a very intelligent insect. A large knife mantis that lives in the tropics, its forefoot can become petal-shaped, and its body color can also change to purple-white. When they hide in the grass, they look like a purple-white orchid. It is easy to fool butterflies, and when butterflies intend to fall down to collect honey, they become their meal.
In some areas, the large knife mantises that live in them will change their bodies into the shape of leaves, branches and scars to confuse small insects, and once the insects approach them, they will extend their forearms like large knives to "hack the insects to death".
What is even more amazing is that a large knife mantis living in the tropical desert region, its body is green, the head has a flat protrusion, smooth and bright, when they lie in the grass, the protrusions on their heads will be like a drop of crystal dew, so that those bugs who want to drink water because of thirst are deceived, and finally die under their "big knives".
It is said that many locusts will be frightened by the posture of the large knife mantis after seeing the big knife mantis, so they slowly lie on the ground, do not run away, and even move slowly to the big knife mantis, when the locust moves to the place where the big knife mantis can reach, the big knife mantis will swoop over and "hack" the locust to death and eat the locust.
It is estimated that the large knife mantis can eat about 1,000 bugs per year, so for agricultural production, the big knife mantis is a beneficial insect.
There are many varieties of large knife mantises, and there are many varieties of large knife mantises living in various parts of China. Among the more than 2,000 kinds of large knife mantis known in the world, there are 147 kinds of large knife mantis in China. The most important species are the Chinese large knife mantis, narrow-winged large knife mantis, broad axe mantis, brown static mantis, thin-winged mantis, green static mantis and so on. There are two main types of large knife mantises living here, one is the Chinese large knife mantis, and the other is the broad axe mantis.
The various species of female knife mantises living in China generally lay eggs in the middle of July every year, and the female large knife mantis will lay eggs on tree branches, walls, fences, stones or stone crevices. The eggs they lay are a very famous Chinese medicinal material---- mulberry mantis, and the market price is now 200 yuan a catty.
Due to the different varieties of large knife mantises, the mulberry mantis is divided into clump mantis, long mantis and black mantis. The origin of the group mantis is mainly in Guangxi, Yunnan, Hubei, Hunan, Hebei, Liaoning, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and other places, generally refers to the Chinese large knife mantis, thin-winged mantis, broad-bellied mantis, North China knife mantis produced by the dried egg sheath; the origin of the long mantis is mainly in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Hubei and other places, generally refers to the brown static mantis, thin-winged mantis produced by the dry egg sheath; the origin of the black mantis is mainly in Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and other places, generally refers to the dry egg sheath produced by the green jing mantis. But no matter where it is produced, the mulberry mantis is a very precious Chinese medicinal material. Therefore, when we find mulberry mantis in the wild, we must remember to collect it!