As a child in suburban New Jersey in the early seventies, summer fears were numerous: shark attacks down the shore, thunderstorms that kept you housebound for longer than an hour, and going to federal prison for killing a praying mantis. In reality, shark attacks were almost unheard of until the blockbuster "Jaws" fed the rumor they were a regular occurrence, while our neighbor's wrap-around porch provided a safe and dry playground in inclement weather.
And the idea that the praying mantis was so endangered or such a valuable tool in the fight against agricultural pests was just an urban myth. It seems that fact wasn't disproved the same time I stopped believing in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, as I just discovered the information on Snopes.com, the well-regarded fact-checking website.
Praying mantises or mantids show up at my Prescott home late every summer. In fact. this past week exactly three individuals appeared together on my deck over the course of a few nights. Each mantis staked out its own light, creating a well-lit territory to hunt insects and moths.
In New Jersey I remember the praying mantis being quite large - bigger than the three inch-long variety I see here in Arizona - and intimidating as it fiercely defended whatever plant or bush it occupied. So it was always an easy decision to avoid both his aggressiveness and that terrifying prison sentence readily handed down for harming him.
Mantids are a large family of insects and might comprise almost 2,000 individual species across the planet. The three most common in North America are the European mantis, the Chinese mantis and the Carolina mantis, the first two of which were possibly introduced as predators to protect gardens from pests. Praying mantis is a popular term that draws attention to the appearance that its front legs are frequently resting in a prayer position.
I don't know which species lives in my Prescott neighborhood and why they only pick late summer to make an appearance. Almost fifty years after my early encounters, I'm no longer afraid of them; rather I'm in awe of the expressive tilt of their heads and the recent discovery that their spindly bodies can fly.
But watching them carefully under a porch light I've observed them devouring large prey like moths, an act that reminds me of a gruesome fact about this species. In an expression of sexual cannibalism, a female mantis often bites off the head of her male sex partner shortly after copulation, followed by her eating his body. So maybe there is something to fear about this amazing insect, at least if you're another mantis.
And the idea that the praying mantis was so endangered or such a valuable tool in the fight against agricultural pests was just an urban myth. It seems that fact wasn't disproved the same time I stopped believing in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, as I just discovered the information on Snopes.com, the well-regarded fact-checking website.
Praying mantises or mantids show up at my Prescott home late every summer. In fact. this past week exactly three individuals appeared together on my deck over the course of a few nights. Each mantis staked out its own light, creating a well-lit territory to hunt insects and moths.
In New Jersey I remember the praying mantis being quite large - bigger than the three inch-long variety I see here in Arizona - and intimidating as it fiercely defended whatever plant or bush it occupied. So it was always an easy decision to avoid both his aggressiveness and that terrifying prison sentence readily handed down for harming him.
Mantids are a large family of insects and might comprise almost 2,000 individual species across the planet. The three most common in North America are the European mantis, the Chinese mantis and the Carolina mantis, the first two of which were possibly introduced as predators to protect gardens from pests. Praying mantis is a popular term that draws attention to the appearance that its front legs are frequently resting in a prayer position.
I don't know which species lives in my Prescott neighborhood and why they only pick late summer to make an appearance. Almost fifty years after my early encounters, I'm no longer afraid of them; rather I'm in awe of the expressive tilt of their heads and the recent discovery that their spindly bodies can fly.
But watching them carefully under a porch light I've observed them devouring large prey like moths, an act that reminds me of a gruesome fact about this species. In an expression of sexual cannibalism, a female mantis often bites off the head of her male sex partner shortly after copulation, followed by her eating his body. So maybe there is something to fear about this amazing insect, at least if you're another mantis.
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| Mantis exhibiting its 'praying' front legs, near my Prescott porch light. |
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| Mantis in Prescott, Arizona. |
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| Mantis devouring a moth. |
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| Mantis with its prey, a moth. |
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| Close-up of a mantis with its prey, a moth. |
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