Nature's Favorite Cannibal

By Anonymous -
By: Abigail Chitwood and Randy Williams

When I was about seven I was down my street when I saw a fairly big bug on the
ground. I picked it up and realized its head was off. The mantis’s head was on the
ground right next to the body. Until this class, that was the one and only time I was
a praying mantis in real life.
Mantises are in the order Mantodea. There are over 2,400 species of mantids in 430
genera split among 15 different families. Those families are Acanthopidae, Acontistidae,
Amorphoscelididae, Angelidae, Chaeteessidae, Coptopterygidae, Empusidae,
Epaphroditidae, Eremiaphilidae, Galinthiadidae, Hymenopodidae, Iridopterygidae,
Liturgusidae, Mantidae, Mantoididae, Metallyticidae, Photinaidae, Stenophyllidae,
Tarachodidae, Thespidae, and Toxoderidae. According to the Smithsonian.org,
the Ancient Greeks, Ancient Egyptians, and Assyrians viewed mantises as supernatural
and believed that they had supernatural powers. Two forms of martial arts have even
developed fighting strategies based on mantises. 
Matises can be found mostly worldwide in temperate, tropical, and subtropical habitats.
Most of the species live in tropical rainforests, however other species can be found in
deserts, grasslands, and meadowlands. They tend to thrive in warmer regions. Females
lay their eggs in the fall between September and October. The eggs will then hatch in the
springtime. 
Mantises are quite often kept as pets, despite only living up to about one year.
The largest species of mantis can grow up to six inches in size. Praying mantises
have voracious appetites. They feed on moths, mosquitoes, roaches, flies, and aphids.
There are also records of larger species feeding on small rodents, frogs, snakes, and
birds. They are quite skilled masters of camouflage and typically stalk their prey.
Mantises are also more impressive than owls as they can turn their heads 300
degrees. Whereas owls can only turn their heads an unimpressive 270 degrees. 
There are about ten different native species of mantis that are populated in our
southwestern deserts. They can be brownish to a tan look like our desert soils and
greenish like the desert foliage and are only a few inches long. Some other insects that
are related to them are crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, and walking sticks. Like
all insects the praying mantis has a head, thorax, and an abdomen, all of this is inside
of the external skeleton but “you and I have internal skeletons”. On its head the mantis
has two antennae that are triangular shaped, but like other insects the mantis has big
compound eyes that help them with their everyday aspects. A fun fact is that they only have
one ear. Their thorax is mostly their long neck that helps them look farther distances,
and their abdomen holds their digestive and reproductive organs. 
During the reproductive system the females let out a species-specific chemical also
known as their pheromones. The males are smaller than the females and before
mounting them to mate they perform a quick ritual, one popular misconception people
have about the mantis is that after mating the females attack and eat the males,
well this is true in captivity but not always in the wild, scientist are still confused on
why this phenomena happens. The female mantis can lay in between 10 to 400
fertilized eggs using their ovipositor at the tip of the abdomen. These eggs are laid
on different types of surfaces like stems and leaves, with each egg in its egg case
also known as the ootheca. Each egg has its own compartment inside of the egg case
and each compartment has a one way out so it makes it easier for the mantis to hatch.
The egg case hardens very quick so it can be protected from insects, birds, sun, and
anything else trying to get to it. Once hatched, if they survive to adulthood they will
repeat the whole thing over again. If food is scarce, female mantises will prey on their own
eggs. 

Next time you see a praying mantis keep in mind that they are more than just really
spiritual looking insects. They are more flexible than owls, sexual cannibals, and
super skilled hunters!

Works Cited
DesertUSA.com. “Praying Mantis.” DesertUSA, https://www.desertusa.com/insects/praying-mantis.html.
“Praying Mantis - Reproduction.” Reproduction - Eggs, Mantids, Nymphs, and Female - JRank Articles, https://science.jrank.org/pages/5441/Praying-Mantis-Reproduction.html

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