We had a campus-wide gathering a few weeks ago. All of the student-run clubs set up displays and sign-up sheets. It was a beautiful day and everyone seemed to be enjoying the great weather, the food, and the music.
I was standing beside the Science Club sign-up table when a female Chinese mantis flew in and landed next to me. The reaction of the people around me was very interesting: about half came over to see the mantis close-up, and half made funny, squeaky noises in their throats and hustled away flapping their hands up around their shoulders.
The Chinese mantis is an impressive insect. It is about five inches long with beautiful colors (mostly tan with green side panels down the length of its body). It has long legs, wings and antennae and carries its front legs up and flexed in front of its face (hence the “praying” adjective!). Its triangular head and large eyes, though, are its most compelling features. This insect really looks at you!! And, then it can rotate its head 180 degrees and really look at something else!
Our visiting mantis sat on my hand for quite a while. She used her front legs to dig into my index finger and pull herself up into a “ready” position. She sat very still mimicking the ambush-hunting behavior that she would have used if she had been waiting in some vegetation for a passing insect or spider. I was very impressed by the strength of the mantis and could believe the published reports of Chinese mantises taking and eating small frogs, lizards, and even hummingbirds (watch out Hubert!) along with an incredibly wide range of insects and arachnids.
The Chinese mantis (Tendora sinensis) (NOTE: many web sites refer to this insect as Tendora aridifolia. That is an old name that has been discarded) was introduced into the United States in the late Nineteenth Century (various dates have been given for this event (1895, 1896, and 1899) and various locations (including New York City and “near Philadelphia”). The purpose of this species introduction was insect control in gardens and fields, and there is still an active commercial trade in Chinese mantis egg sacks as bio-control agents for flower and vegetable gardens. Over the past 110 + years, the Chinese mantis has established itself throughout North America and readily breeds and overwinters throughout the United States and Canada. It has not taken on the explosive population characteristics of many other exotic species (like the house sparrow or the European starling, for example) but it has had a very significant, negative impact on our native mantis species (all of which are much smaller than the Chinese mantis and are, therefore, prey!).
Our female mantis was hatched from an egg sack (called an “ootheca”) this past spring along with several hundred of her siblings. The freshly hatched mantises began at once to hunt and eat small insects (including each other!), and they grew steadily throughout the summer. The females are much larger than the males and when it’s time to reproduce the male frequently ends up either during or just after mating as a meal for the female. In early Fall the female lays her eggs in a foam-like slurry which she extrudes onto plant stems or twigs. The foam hardens into the brown ootheca. Many gardeners while doing their Fall and Winter pruning watch for these overwintering egg sacks and carefully avoid damaging or disturbing them.
There are a number of urban myths that concern the Chinese mantis. One very prevalent one that was even brought up while we were sitting around the Club Tent extolls their Federal and even State “protected” status. They are described as protected from being collected or being killed by a wide range of laws. None of this is true. There are no laws protecting these alien insects (except the prohibition of collecting ANY insects (or other organisms for that matter) in Federal or State parks).
I put our Chinese mantis over in some plants near the Lion Shrine. I hope that she finds some good meals in there (no hummingbirds, though) and lays her eggs so that we have a good crop of mantises for next year’s Club Rush!