Order: Mantoidei - Family: Mantids
The name derives from the greek Mantis Mantis-IDOS which means prophet. It 's a kind of insect Pterigota. They are
in places warm and dry in late summer.
The mantises are insects of many different sizes (from 1 to 16 mm), diurnal hunters, the mantoidei have a vibrant color with camouflage functions or recall, the head mobilissimo with eyes with good vision, very slender and the prothorax specialized legs for capturing prey.
Like all insects, mantids have six legs, antennae and a body divided into three distinct parts: head thorax and abdomen. A large abdomen, surmounted by wings, sometimes partially atrophied, contains the vital organs.
When the front legs are in the "prayer", the femurs are juxtaposed with coxae long, hanging freely, and the tibias femurs are bent on the segments close to each other, they are required slightly off the front of the shins protorace.Femori and are fitted with pins arranged in two series, and when the shank ends are folded to meet with each other, also ending with a long curved and very sharp hook.
The praying mantises are predatory insects, which are present in all warm and temperate countries with about 2000 species, belonging to a single order Mantodea class Insecta, phylum Arthropoda.
When he spotted his prey, the mantis launches a flash forward coxae, extending the femurs and tibias and grabbed the victim after they folded like a clamp around the body of this, while the spines prevent it to escape. All this happens in about one-twentieth of a second.
When the legs have taken over the starting position of the prey is to be prayer in front of the mouth that eats quietly. During mating, starting from the head and genitals continue in coupling. While playing the female mantis eats the male's body, this is a great need for protein, and 'was found in captivity where there is plenty of food, the act of cannibalism is not the case.
The females protect their eggs by placing them in ovoteche, which can contain up to 200 eggs, they have a frothy appearance and a different shape from species to species. The eggs hatch in the spring: from the first small changes appear with raptatorie legs and soon spread over a large territory that prevents direct contact between individuals and the subsequent fratricide.
The mantises are insects with incomplete metamorphosis (the children, called nymphs, are almost identical to their parents and grow with a series of mute, without the stage of larva and pupa), closely related to cockroaches and grasshoppers
The mantids are Flying wings have atrophied or very low and often only the males are able to make use of this property.
The praying mantises are generally very static, if well fed. In fact, in nature if food is scarce they move through the grass in search of some insects. While if the place is full of prey, most of the time it attached to pass some branch or blade of grass, waiting for the victim to walk under the eyes. The prey are the best, undoubtedly, the crickets. These are rich in calcium and keratin, substances which also serve to mantids.
Curiosity
Of the approximately 2000 species of 'order Mantodea, found in tropical and subtropical countries around the world, in our country there are only thirteen, divided into six genera (Mantis, Iris, Empusa, Ameles, Geomantis, Rivetina, Pseudoyersinia
According to Chinese tradition the founder of Praying Mantis was Master Wong Long
The mantis clap their wings only four times second, the common mosquito about a thousand times. According to some popular beliefs
the mantis brings malocchioLa its appearance in ancient foretold the famine and its left shadow, a disgrace to animals incontrava.In some popular legends has called "Pray to God," for its classic position " with folded hands, "and also had a picture benefica.In other traditions is a fortune-teller, and shows the way to missing children because you know instinctively where the wolf is
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