TO-DAY’S NATURE NOTE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 84, 3 January 1935, Page 6

TO-DAY’S NATURE NOTE

The Ways of the Praying Mantis

The praying mantis, so called because of the devout way it 'holds its front legs before its quaint triangular face, is a well-known insect in many countries. We have a New Zealand species, the observation of which reveals many of those

little one-act dramas, both sad and funny, with which Nature is teeming. Congruous with its devout life, the praying mantis is one of the few insects which during its ordinary life “sprouts" wings. Several times between September and March it becomes too big' for its skin and has to go through a painful process of wriggling out of it, leaving the complete

shell of the old mantis behind. It is most interesting to watch tho last occasion on which this trying feat is performed. After some hours of hanging head downward to a twig with its bind legs, it pushes through its old shell with much apparent pain and emerges glossy and green, and for the first time in its life it has wings —two leafy upper ones and two gauzy lower ones. Now it has grown to full adult life and if it is a female it will kill any rival females that are in the vicinity of the chosen male. Worse, after the honeymoon she will slay and hungrily devour her husband ! The praying mantis is thus notoriously the greatest hypocrite in the insect world I— j.D. (Wanganui)

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