Mantids are members of the insect order Orthoptera and related to the grasshoppers and roaches. According to F.W. Carpenter in “A Review of Our Present Knowledge of the Geological History of Insects,” Psyche 37, after the roaches, mantids were some of the earliest insects to walk on and fly across this planet. Their front wings are modified as coverings for their rear wings which, alone, are used for their infrequent flights. Their coloration, front legs, and behavior give mantids a keen edge when hunting.
Coloration
Spending their early life in grasses and other plants of fields and open places, mantids are pigmented to closely match the surrounding vegetation. As they mature, mantids alter their colors to match the changes in colors of their background. Thus, while young mantids are all green, the adults may be mostly green or light brown with their long wing covers brown toward the mid line and green on the edges allowing them to virtually disappear into their background. The average person can walk within three inches of a praying mantid or look directly at one from a foot away and not see it.
Tropical mantids that lurk on large flowers often have the same pigments as the flowers and are even more difficult to see than North American mantids. Their body parts may also have projections that increase the similarity to their background. Some mantids spend most of their time on trees and are colored like tree bark.
Legs
Like all insects, mantids have six legs. But they only walk on four of them. The front pair of legs are exquisitely modified to capture prey. Armed with needle-sharp spines, these legs are formidable weapons of attack that can puncture and hold prey and ward off predators. The prey is captured when the wrist and forearm are rapidly extended. As these joints are retracted, they close inward on each other and the prey is impaled on their long spines.
Behavior
Moving ever so slowly, a mantis will get close to a flower head then stand quietly, swaying slightly back and forth. When a bee, butterfly, or fly comes to the flower, the only noticeable movement is a slight turning of the mantid's head toward the animal. The mantis waits, waits, ... until the insect moves within striking range. Suddenly, the insect jerks and stops moving directly beneath the mantid's triangular head, held tightly in the mantid's formidable embrace. It seems the mantid has not moved, but the insect surely has.
Feeding
Maintaining its decorum, the mantid gracefully lifts the insect to its mouth and delicately begins to feed. First the head disappears, then the thorax. Wings and legs are discarded, falling to the ground. The abdomen, although richest in proteins and nutrients, is last to be eaten.
When the entire insect is consumed, the mantid takes more than a quarter hour to painstakingly clean its forelegs – daintily nibbling along each spine and surface. Several more minutes are spent cleaning its face, eyes, and antennae with its forelegs moving stray food particles toward its mouth and nibbling these in turn.
Mantids sometimes eat prey that are two or more times larger than themselves. In addition to medium to large insects, adult mantids eat spiders, mouse-sized mammals, frogs, lizards, sometimes their mates, and even hummingbirds. Any animal hapless enough to approach a hungry mantid will be captured and consumed when possible.
 |
 |
