by orin stepanek » Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:55 pm
neufer wrote: βWed Jun 09, 2021 2:39 pm
orin stepanek wrote: βWed Jun 09, 2021 12:27 am
Walking stick? Nasty little guy!
- Praying mantis. Nasty big gal!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis wrote:
<<Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 430 genera in 30 families.
Mantises are sometimes confused with stick insects (Phasmatodea), other elongated insects such as grasshoppers (Orthoptera), or other unrelated insects with raptorial forelegs such as mantisflies (Mantispidae). The closest relatives of mantises are termites and cockroaches (Blattodea), which are all within the superorder Dictyoptera. Mantises have triangular heads with bulging eyes supported on flexible necks. Their elongated bodies may or may not have wings, but all Mantodea have forelegs that are greatly enlarged and adapted for catching and gripping prey; their upright posture, while remaining stationary with forearms folded, has led to the common name praying mantis. The earliest mantis fossils are about 140 million years old, from Siberia. Fossil mantises, including one from Japan with spines on the front legs as in modern mantises, have been found in Cretaceous amber. Most fossils in amber are nymphs; compression fossils (in rock) include adults.
Sexual cannibalism is common among most predatory species of mantises in captivity. It has sometimes been observed in natural populations, where about a quarter of male-female encounters result in the male being eaten by the female. Around 90% of the predatory species of mantises exhibit sexual cannibalism. Adult males typically outnumber females at first, but their numbers may be fairly equivalent later in the adult stage, possibly because females selectively eat the smaller males. The female may begin feeding by biting off the male's head (as they do with regular prey), and if mating has begun, the male's movements may become even more vigorous in its delivery of sperm. The reason for sexual cannibalism has been debated; experiments show that females on poor diets are likelier to engage in sexual cannibalism than those on good diets.[66] Some hypothesize that submissive males gain a selective advantage by producing offspring; this is supported by a quantifiable increase in the duration of copulation among males which are cannibalized, in some cases doubling both the duration and the chance of fertilization. This is contrasted by a study where males were seen to approach hungry females with more caution, and were shown to remain mounted on hungry females for a longer time, indicating that males that actively avoid cannibalism may mate with multiple females. The same study also found that hungry females generally attracted fewer males than those that were well fed. The act of dismounting after copulation is dangerous for males, for at this time, females most frequently cannibalize their mates.>>
Thanks Art; I stand corrected!
Here is a walking stick!
Still, a nasty looking guy!
[quote=neufer post_id=314056 time=1623249558 user_id=124483]
[quote="orin stepanek" post_id=314023 time=1623198476 user_id=100812]
Walking stick? Nasty little guy!π [/quote]
[list]Praying mantis. Nasty big gal![/list]
[quote=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis]
<<Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 430 genera in 30 families.[b][u][color=#0000FF] Mantises are sometimes confused with stick insects (Phasmatodea)[/color][/u][/b], other elongated insects such as grasshoppers (Orthoptera), or other unrelated insects with raptorial forelegs such as mantisflies (Mantispidae). The closest relatives of mantises are termites and cockroaches (Blattodea), which are all within the superorder Dictyoptera. Mantises have triangular heads with bulging eyes supported on flexible necks. Their elongated bodies may or may not have wings, but all Mantodea have forelegs that are greatly enlarged and adapted for catching and gripping prey; their upright posture, while remaining stationary with forearms folded, has led to the common name praying mantis. The earliest mantis fossils are about 140 million years old, from Siberia. Fossil mantises, including one from Japan with spines on the front legs as in modern mantises, have been found in Cretaceous amber. Most fossils in amber are nymphs; compression fossils (in rock) include adults.
[float=right][img3=Sexual cannibalism in Mantis religiosa]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Praying_Mantis_Sexual_Cannibalism_European-37.jpg[/img3][/float]
Sexual cannibalism is common among most predatory species of mantises in captivity. It has sometimes been observed in natural populations, where about a quarter of male-female encounters result in the male being eaten by the female. Around 90% of the predatory species of mantises exhibit sexual cannibalism. Adult males typically outnumber females at first, but their numbers may be fairly equivalent later in the adult stage, possibly because females selectively eat the smaller males. The female may begin feeding by biting off the male's head (as they do with regular prey), and if mating has begun, the male's movements may become even more vigorous in its delivery of sperm. The reason for sexual cannibalism has been debated; experiments show that females on poor diets are likelier to engage in sexual cannibalism than those on good diets.[66] Some hypothesize that submissive males gain a selective advantage by producing offspring; this is supported by a quantifiable increase in the duration of copulation among males which are cannibalized, in some cases doubling both the duration and the chance of fertilization. This is contrasted by a study where males were seen to approach hungry females with more caution, and were shown to remain mounted on hungry females for a longer time, indicating that males that actively avoid cannibalism may mate with multiple females. The same study also found that hungry females generally attracted fewer males than those that were well fed. The act of dismounting after copulation is dangerous for males, for at this time, females most frequently cannibalize their mates.>>[/quote]
[/quote]
Thanks Art; I stand corrected!
Here is a walking stick![attachment=0].jpg[/attachment]
Still, a nasty looking guy!