Praying Mantis

Here are some of the praying mantises of the summer of 2019.

This one is doing a good job of blending in.

Watching me. Click to enlarge.

A poem by Ogden Nash: 

From whence arrived the praying mantis? 

From outer space or lost Atlantis?

glimpse the grin, green metal mug

at masks the pseudo-saintly bug,

Orthropterous, also carnivorous,

And faintly whisper, Lord deliver us. 

The other day a mantis appeared on one of my windows. I took its picture, just a silhouette without the usual tangled background of leaves. It was easy to isolate with Photoshop to make graphics like this one. Reminds me of the Karate Kid in this pose.

And this. Gotta love a little mantis art, right?

Camouflaged!

"The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself." Henry Miller

Click on the photos to enlarge. 

There is a well camouflaged praying mantis nymph inside that circle. They rely on camouflage to hunt, sitting unseen until their insect prey come within striking range -- and then seizing them. It's pretty darned good camouflage. I wonder how many of these we pass without seeing them.  

Praying Mantis

This is a female Carolina mantis, Stagmomantis carolina. It is one of quite a few different species of insect called "praying mantis." Carolina mantises come in green, brown, and combinations of both. Click to enlarge. 

The females of this species are easy to identify because their wings only cover three-quaters of the abdomen, like a hip-length jacket. I just saw four of these mantises in the space of two days -- all females. Was that a coincidence or are they up to something?

P.S. The brown one was photographed on a fencepost near the pond in Brooklyn Bridge Park. That's a bit north of their traditional range. But it is not unusual for them to get around on plants and by boat, car, truck, train, and other accidental transport. People also introduce them to gardens as egg cases from garden supply stores. Mantises are beneficial insects that prey on insect pests. Happy to see they have found our park!

Tiny Praying Mantis

A praying mantis nymph on my thumb. I found the insect on a bush by a path in the water garden in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Click on it!

I took this photo in June 2012. A miniature praying mantis is sitting on my thumb. It is a praying mantis nymph, an immature stage, and a very cute example of how insects grow.

There are two kinds of insect metamorphosis: complete (also called holometabolic) and incomplete (also called partial or hemimetabolic). The monarch butterfly is a well-known example of an insect that undergoes complete metamorphosis. Its life stages are egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult. Caterpillars have several stages, growing larger and shedding their skin for each.

The praying mantis grows by incomplete metamorphosis in which its appearance changes less dramatically. Its life stages are egg, nymph, and adult. Nymphs resemble adults but are smaller and lack adult features like wings and functioning genitals. A praying mantis grows through several nymphal stages, increasing in size and shedding a skin for each.

The insect in the photo will have completed its life by now. Adults die when the cold weather comes. But with luck it mated, if male, or, if female, mated and left an egg case to overwinter. Next summer I'll check the bush where I found this one and look for its children.

Ogden Nash wrote this poem called The Praying Mantis:

From whence arrived the praying mantis? 

From outer space, or lost Atlantis? 

glimpse the grin, green metal mug

at masks the pseudo-saintly bug,

Orthopterous, also carnivorous, 

And faintly whisper, Lord deliver us.