The European mantis (Mantis religiosa) is a large hemimetabolic insect in the Mantidae family, which is the largest family of the order Mantodea (mantises). Their common name praying mantis is derived from the distinctive posture of the first pair of legs that can be observed when the mantis is in repose, resembling a praying position. Both males and females have elongated bodies with two pairs of wings. The most striking features that the species (and all mantodeans) have are a very mobile, triangular head with large compound eyes and their first pair of legs (the 'raptorial legs'), which is highly modified for the efficient capture and restraint of fast-moving or flying prey. It is not supposed to be caught or held as a pet. At a global level, it is assessed by the IUCN as least concern.

Mantids show strong deimatic display from very early life stages on. This behavior can be observed throughout different groups of animals and is used to scare or startle potential predators to give the attacked animals a chance to escape. The deimatic display in M. religiosa involves wing spreading and bending of the raptorial legs to reveal two matched black eyespots with a yellow or white center at the base of the coxae (legs). It makes the animal appear much larger and more of a threat to the attacker. The black eyespots are also a distinct feature for species discrimination of the European mantis.

Another unique feature of M. religiosa is its midline metathoracic ear (see Ultrasound avoidance). This "tympanal auditory organ" is an unpaired structure found on the ventral side of the animal on the metathorax between the third pair of legs. Unlike other sound-processing organs found among different groups of insects, the metathoracic ear has a high sensitivity across high and low frequencies and even ultrasound. Therefore, the authors call it a 'true ear'.

Coloration

The great variation in the coloration of M. religiosa from different shades of yellow, brown, green, and sometimes black has been the cause of numerous hypotheses and studies for over 100 years. However, no generally accepted answer about reason, benefit, or mechanism of the coloration or the change of coloration has been found.

Di Cesnola observed in 1904 that green mantids were found on fresh green grass, whereas brown individuals seemed to prefer brown grass burned by the sun. When forced to change the location as to no longer match their coloration, almost all the 'not matching' animals were killed by predators such as birds. This indicates a camouflaging purpose of the coloration.

Przibram also observed in 1907 that a change in temperature can trigger a change in coloration: where it is considered introduced. Two confirmed stable populations are in Germany: one in Rhineland-Palatinate and one in Baden-Württemberg. In the last years, more reports have been made of the distribution of the animals in Northern Europe (Latvia, Estonia), as well.

While it is absent from the British Isles, M. religiosa occurs - and has been recorded breeding - on the Channel Islands, with a particularly abundant population on the island of Jersey, suggesting that the species may be capable of expanding its range north to Great Britain.

Despite being an introduced species, it is the official state insect of Connecticut.

Reproduction

thumb|Female Mantis religiosa laying eggs

The sexual behavior of praying mantis in general is curious, so has received interest from scientists over the last century. The differences between the various species are well known.

In M. religiosa, courtship and mating are separated into two steps: Preliminary courtship begins with the first visual contact between the animals and ends with the first physical contact. Copulation begins with physical contact and ends when the spermatophore is deposited: He then proceeds to approach her from behind. Males can be observed to stop as soon as the female turns her head or even moves. Mantids are very good at detecting moving structures, but are almost unable to see immobile objects. Using this 'stop-and-go' tactic, the male stalks closer to the female. This can often take several hours. Depending on the environment, males sometimes show a light 'rocking'-behavior which is believed to imitate the leaves of surrounding plants to blend in with the background. Males doing this had no higher probability of being detected and attacked, which supports this hypothesis of concealment.) and humidity. Females prefer to deposit their eggs on solid substrates at warm and sunny sites. Most eggs from one ootheca hatch at the same time along the entire convex site, as worm-like prelarvae (L1). The hatchings always occur in the morning.

For quite some time, the belief that sexual cannibalism in M. religiosa only occurred in captivity was widespread. It was believed to be an artefact of improper animal keeping (too little food or space). In 1992, however, the cannibalising behaviour of female M. religiosa was observed in a field study. Lawrence compared the percentage of cannibalism in natural and manipulated (males and females were put close together in the field) pairings and found rates of 31% and 24%.

This proves that sexual cannibalism in this praying mantid is not caused by laboratory conditions. They can, however, intensify the phenomenon; females that were starved for more than three days were more likely to attack males, even before copulation.

The fact that sexual cannibalisation happens so often is surely also supported because a male without a head can continue and even initiate copulation. The cerebral ganglion might have an inhibitory effect on copulatory reflexes. Once it is removed by removing the head, copulation might even be longer, since the male can never 'decide' to let go. A few mantids can also start copulating when the heads of both animals get removed artificially beforehand. The beheaded animals can live up to five hours and usually just die when they bleed out or starve to death. but crickets and cockroaches are also frequently preyed upon. The attack or consumption of Mollusca, Aranea, Myriapoda, or Oligochaeta is also not unknown. Caught prey gets trapped between the spikes on the femora and tibiae and is now immobilized. The mantis then starts eating the still-living and preferably moving prey. Some years ago, the general opinion was that they killed their prey with a bite in the neck before consuming it, but current observations do not support this; the animals just start eating the body parts closest to their mouths. One compound eye of an adult mantid consists of 8,000 to 10,000 optically isolated ommatidia with an interommatidial angle of 2° in the periphery and 0.7° in the fovea. The overlap of the visual field of the two eyes is 40° in nymphs and up to 70° in adults.

The peering behaviour observed in M. religiosa is believed to be essential for the measurement of distances and depth perception; a side-to-side pendulum-like movement of the head or the whole body in a horizontal plane is used to scan the environment. Motion parallax is a depth cue that describes the fact that the closer the object is, the faster it seems to move when turning one's head while looking at it compared to slower-moving objects that are more distant. Animals that were blinded on one eye did not strike for prey, showing that binocular vision is essential, since the disparity between the information of each eye is used to estimate distances, as well.

Subspecies

  • M. r. beybienkoi is found in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, West Siberia, and Primorsky Krai (Russian Far East)
  • M. r. caucasica is found in Stavropol.
  • M. r. eichleri is found in Ethiopia, Mauritania, Niokolo-Koba, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, the Congo, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Zambia, and Anatolia.
  • M. r. inornata is found in India, Iran, Nepal, and Pakistan,
  • syn. <small> M. r. akbari (Soomro et al., 2001)</small>
  • syn. <small> M. inornata (Werner, 1930)</small>
  • M. r. polonica is found in Poland and Russia.
  • M. r. religiosa is found in Africa, North America (Canada, United States), Europe, and Asia (Nepal), but not in South America or Australia.

<gallery>

File:Mantis religiosa Fore Coxa Marking.JPG|M. religiosa, female with indicative marking (black spot) on fore coxa

File:MantisLegGBMNH.jpg|The raptorial foreleg of a praying mantis

File:Mantis religiosa couple.JPG|Mating pair of M. religiosa, Lower Austria

File:Mantis religiosa (egg case).jpg|Ootheca Sardinia, Italy

File:Mantis religiosa (AF) left 01.jpg|Adult male M. religiosa in Saône-et-Loire (71, France) in September, 2008

File:Mantidae - Mantis religiosa-3.JPG|Brown adult male M. religiosa 2008 October, Cerreto Ratti, Alessandria

File:Mantis religiosa2.jpg|M. religiosa nymph, France

File:Mantis religiosa MHNT entière.jpg|Adult male M. religiosa

File:Brown praying mantis.jpg|Brown adult female M. religiosa

File:European-mantis-eats-grasshopper.JPG|Brown adult female M. religiosa

File:Mantis en Escorial, España; 2020.jpg|female adult (El Escorial, Spain)

File:Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa religiosa) 07.jpg|Adult M. r. religiosa in Guelph, Ontario

File:Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa religiosa) Ootheca 02.jpg|Ootheca in Guelph, Ontario

File:Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa religiosa) Ootheca 06.jpg|Damaged ootheca in Guelph, Ontario

File:Europäische Gottesanbeterin.jpg|At the Aristotlepark of Stagira

File:Mantide geotermica.jpg

File:Mantis religiosa - 720x576.ogv|Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) preying and eating a grasshopper.

File:Mantis religiosa female molting subadult.png|Subadult female Mantis religiosa molting to its adult stage.

</gallery>

References

  • Photographs of European mantis (M. religiosa)
  • A European mantis feeding on a variety of insects