The Amazing Life of the Praying Mantis

When you are out walking in the African bush, you might see a dry stick or piece of grass which seems to be slowly moving. Chances are you are probably looking at a praying mantis. Many of them resemble dry or living pieces of plant. These insects are classified in the Order Mantodea which is Greek for “Soothsayer”. Approach it closer and you will see why. The oversize serrated forelegs will be held up in an attitude of prayer.

The praying mantis is a master of camouflage which enables it to patiently wait for an insect to come within striking range. It then grabs its hapless victim with a lightning quick jab of its raptorial, spiked forelegs. There is no escape for the tightly gripped victim as it is devoured at leisure.

After darkness the praying mantis is a favourite food of bats. So this clever creature has developed a cyclopean ear on the thorax, which enables it to pick up the echo-location activity of bats, enabling the mantis to avoid them quite dramatically by simply falling out of the sky when they detect the bats’ sonar emissions.

The best way to observe the micro fauna on a walking safari is to turn your binoculars upside down, which transforms them into a microscope, magnifying the subject many times. Looking at a praying mantis in this way can give you a shock, transforming it into a creature from the movie "Men in Black".

A magnified view shows them to have a smallish, triangular head, which uniquely among the insects they can swivel one hundred and eighty degrees. This allows them to turn their heads and zone in on potential prey. They have huge compound eyes that are multi- faceted and are perfect for detecting the slightest movement while they are in ambush mode. They could easily be mistaken for a dry grass stalk or a stick or leaf on a plant.

The male praying mantis is extremely wary of the female mantis as they have been known to engage in sexual cannibalism. This does not always occur and a slick male can escape his partner. Some mantis species have a system of nerve ganglions that are spread through the head and thorax. If the mating female does happen to capture the male while they are mating, she might well start to feast on him even while they are still copulating. This sinister predatory action usually begins with the female eating the males head first, and she will eat him in totality as they progress in procreation. This is the ultimate sacrifice on the part of the male to perpetuate the species.

It is thought that he provides a necessary supplement to her diet when she starts to lay her eggs, which can number up to 60 depending on species. The eggs are individually enclosed in a frothy mass, called an ootheca, which of course requires a lot of energy on her part. The ootheca is deposited in the darkness on a grass stalk or a small branch and is quite vulnerable to the elements. Parasitic wasps are one of the major predators at this stage, and may incapacitate many of the eggs during their 30 days or so of metamorphosis.  The small nymphs hatch out of a one way valve in the top of each cell and emerge a dark colour, quite often mimicking ants as a defence mechanism. They resemble the adults at this stage. These nymphs think nothing of cannibalizing their siblings in order to get a head start in life. They will undergo 5 or 6 moults before reaching adult hood, and usually live about 10- 12 months in the wild.

The San bushman of Southern Africa are so impressed by this extraordinary creature that they have deified the praying mantis in their religion, and it is one of the forms that their god Cagn can change into.