Helen Lin's Naturalism
One hundred and eleven original series
Photo/Helen Lin
Edit/Hill
Recently, I visited butterfly resources on the high mountain in Luting Township, Yuyao. The sharp-eyed Teacher Hu saw that there was a very small monster on the leaf, and I immediately looked up and found that it was only less than 2 cm long, and the forelimbs were very similar to the catching feet of a praying mantis, but it was certainly not a type of praying mantis, because it had 2 pairs of transparent wings. Teacher Hu said that it must be a mantis of the veined wing order, but this is also a bug he has never seen in the wild.
In the wild of Ningbo, insects of the order Pulfossidae have little impression of other species except the common grasshoppers and the uncommon butterfly and anthoppers. I have only seen specimens of the mantis family in the "Chinese Insect Atlas", and I did not expect that we in Ningbo also have this very strange insect distribution.
To figure out what kind of mantis this mantis really was, I managed to capture it and make a detailed observation. After taking many ecological photographs before the capture, I found that the forearm of its forelimb was folded downwards when it was naturally inhabited, and its hindarm was located above, while when preparing for attack, the forearm was contracted above the hindarm. That is to say, its elbow joint can be rotated 360 degrees, while the mantis's joint can only be rotated by 180 degrees, and the mantis's forearm is always located above the hind arm and cannot be folded downwards.
A notable feature of insects is that individuals are relatively small, and it is impossible to see the details of their parts without the help of microscopes to zoom in.
Under the microscope, I saw that this mantis had black brow-like spots on the top of its head, so it was consistent with the characteristics of the brow spot Eastern Mantis, which belonged to the genus Eastern Mantis in the family Mantis. This species has a recorded distribution in Zhejiang Province, but is the first to be found in Ningbo.
The body length of the brow-spotted mantis is about 15 mm. Its head is very similar to the head of a praying mantis, the compound eye is large and green, the antennae are rosary-shaped, about 2 mm long, shorter, and significantly different from the filamentous antennae of the praying mantis. The head-down mouth type is a chewing mouthpiece. The foreparticle is slender and brown , and all four footlets are yellow. The abdomen is yellow with dark markings.
The back has 2 pairs of transparent wings, and the forewings are about 12 mm long. The veins of the forewings and anterior wings are relatively similar, and the vein structure is relatively simple. The shape of the wings is similar to that of dragonflies , with the forewings slightly longer than the hindwings. The leading edge of the main vein of the forewing has a small extension , a feature that is rare in the insect world. Each wing has a tan wing mole near the apex. When it rests naturally, the wings contract on the back of the abdomen, and the left and right wings are right angled from the front.
According to relevant records, the adult insects of the brow-spotted mantis live by catching small insects, while their larvae are parasitic in the egg sacs of spiders, which is a creative survival strategy! Most of the species of spiders have the habit of egg protection, "spider egg holding" is the observation and description of this behavior, some spiders will guard the side of the egg sac, and some will carry the egg sac with them to provide protection. In order for a mantis to lay eggs in a spider's egg sac, it must first kill the parent spider that guards the egg before it can spawn in it. At this time, its catch foot under the front chest is the most powerful offensive weapon.
There are no surprises in the world, and surprising phenomena will always occur in the natural world around us, as long as we seriously search and discover.
Helen Lin May 26, 2020
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