Over the last few weeks, I have been getting to know the strange, weird, and just plain awesome praying mantids a bit better.

Mantids have various interesting and strange adaptations that make them so successful. Likely the most well-known adaptation is the raptorial front legs with which they brutally capture their prey and keep hold of it while they start to eat it alive! The spines on the raptorial front legs allow them to get a good grip on their prey to ensure that the prey doesn’t escape.

Many of the mantis species are masters of disguise, either through camouflage (matching colour to its surroundings) or by Masquerading mimicry (mimicking inanimate objects in its surroundings). These disguises give mantids the element of surprise when they are stalking their prey. More than that this gives many mantids very intriguing body shapes and colours, which is why they are often kept as pets!

One of the more intricate adaptations is the way in which they protect their eggs. They do it by means of an ootheca. The female will lay the eggs with a foam around them. This foam will then harden quickly and reach full hardness after 3 to 5 days. An ootheca insulates the eggs from temperature changes and can protect eggs to below freezing temperatures and allows the eggs to overwinter. Further it protects the eggs from rain and predators.

Some species have very weird mating behaviours. Being such feracious predators a female will not hesitate to eat the male during copulation, but that is not the weird part. The weird part is that in some species males are incapable of transferring his gametes or sperm to the female, until the female eats his head off. Only once the female has eaten his head off will the male’s headless body start to transfer his sperm to successfully mate with the female! Talk about fatal attractions! The nutrients the female gains from consuming the male ensures that the largest amount and strongest eggs will be laid, which greatly increases the survival rate of the offspring.

In species where the male doesn’t have to lose his head to mate successfully, males are capable of mating with various females. In these species males have the ability to scrape another male’s sperm out of the female’s genitalia before depositing his own sperm, to ensure that there is no competition for his sperm.

Have you ever thought that mantids are so intriguing? What did the most beautiful mantis you have ever seen look like and where did you find it?

If you would like to send me a message with your answers, feel free to do so on Instagram @abugmanslife or via email to [email protected].

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