This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

The Memorable Munching Mantis -- by Johnny Ferreira -- Muhlenberg College Class of 2016

Enduring memories of a close encounter with a Praying Mantis

One summer, when I was a small boy, I was playing in my backyard with a soccer ball. I kicked it as hard as I could and sent the ball careening into a nearby bush. As I knelt down to pick up the ball, something caught my eye. There, only a foot away, was a Praying Mantis. I took a step back, observing the creature in front of me, waiting to see what it would do next. To my shock, it merely turned its head to see an incoming butterfly, and with lightning speed, plucked the small insect from the sky. I was completely astonished at the sheer power of that mantis; so marveled that I sat down on the ground and watched it for the remainder of the day.

Praying Mantises are part of a group of insects called Mantids. Mantids are known for their triangular shaped head, predatory forelimbs, long slender body and skinny legs. However, not all mantids look the same. One of the most common and largest mantids in Pennsylvania, the Chinese Mantis (or Tenodera sinesis),  tends to be brown in color with a green racing strip running the length of its wings. In addition, its brown body is accented by lime green eyes, giving it an otherworldly appearance.

Even though these slender little creatures look cute and graceful, they are tenacious predators. Similar to a college freshman, the Chinese Mantis will eat just about anything it can. It often devours other insects such as roaches, flies, crickets and butterflies. It is even known to attack and feast on small birds! Due to their voracious appetite, Chinese Mantises and other Mantids are often used in gardens as a form of pest control. First introduced in 1896, Mantids have been a huge help to farmers in the US to control unwanted critters and prevent them from destroying the crops.

Find out what's happening in South Whitehallwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Due to their appetite, Chinese Mantids are often sold as a natural way of eliminating harmful pests. Surprisingly, they also can do some harm. Mantids don’t know what insects we humans consider to be helpful or harmful. As such, they often eat indiscriminately and sometimes gobble up some of the more beneficial animals in their environment. In addition, even though mantids can be docile towards humans, they are still wild animals and have the potential to pinch or even bite a human.     

The Chinese Mantis is not just a food munching monster, in recent years many people have taken a liking to the elegance of the insect and have taken them up as pets. Due to their large size, Chinese Mantids tend be a prime choice for most prospective pet owners. With time and patience, the Chinese Mantis will actually become quite tame to it’s human companion. It is not uncommon for a Chinese Mantis to trust its human counterpart so much that it will willingly perch itself on one’s hand or even be hand fed!

Find out what's happening in South Whitehallwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

One behavior of mantids that is very well known and often “romanticized” is the sometimes lethal partaking in the mating ritual. In this case, truth is definitely stranger than fiction. To begin, the female mantis will secrete pheromones that alert the males to her location. This pheromone signature acts like a road map, leading the prospective males to the waiting female. Next, the male must court his potential mate. To do this, the males will sway from side to side and move their abdomens in a rhythmic up-and-down motion. Picture the insect equivalent of twerking. The male will then approach the female directly from the front or directly from the back. If all goes according to plan, the male will begin copulation with the female. The pervasive myth about mantis courtship is that the male often gets beheaded after the two finish mating (talk about a buzz kill). The truth is that this is not observed in nature as regularly as one might think. It usually only occurs when the female is particularly hungry. A side result of the decapitation is that it seems to make the mantids mate for a longer amount of time. Some researchers have speculated this behavior started because it could give the mantids a greater likelihood of fertilization.

When I think back to my memory of kicking that ball into the bush, I remember how majestic that mantis was. At first, I was scared of it, yet I soon became accustomed to my new alien friend. I would have never thought that its appetite could be beneficial. But, I guess, like most things in our word, this little creature is much more than meets the eye.


The Memorable Munching Mantis by Johnny Ferreira is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.



We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from South Whitehall