Indian giant mantis

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Indian giant mantis
Indian giant mantis (Hierodula membranacea), female

Indian giant mantis ( Hierodula membranacea ), female

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Mantis (Mantodea)
Family : Mantidae
Subfamily : Mantinae
Genre : Hierodula
Type : Indian giant mantis
Scientific name
Hierodula membranacea
Burmeister , 1838

The Indian Riesengottesanbeterin ( Hierodula membranous ), also known as Indian mantis known or under other similar name, is a mantis from the family of Mantidae . Due to its size and ease of care, the species is a popular species for keeping in terrariums.

features

The Ghana praying mantis is vaguely reminiscent of the Indian giant mantis

The female can be up to 90 millimeters long, the slimmer male up to 70 millimeters long. The coloring of males and females varies from yellow-green, green, and brown to red-brown. The females have six abdomen segments, the males eight. Like many fishing horrors, the Indian giant mantis is well adapted to its habitat and camouflaged within it.

Similar species

The Indian giant praying mantis is similar to other known species of the Mantidae family , such as the Ghanaian praying mantis ( Sphodromantis lineola ) found in Africa . However, it differs ex. This is due to the absence of the secondary ocular hump between the complex eye and the antenna and the yellow coloration of parts of the mouthparts. With the Ghana praying mantis these parts are red.

Occurrence

The species is distributed in South and Southeast Asia, as well as in parts of East Asia. It occurs in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, southern China, Thailand and Java. It needs warm, humid conditions such as those found in tropical forests .

Way of life

Like all fishing horrors, the animals feed in a predatory manner. They hunt anything that is less than two thirds of their body length. As soon as something moves in their immediate vicinity, they grab at lightning speed with their thorny tentacles. They are also prone to cannibalism . As with many praying mantises, the male is often eaten by the female while mating, although his body continues copulation even when the head has already been eaten off .

Mating takes about 8 to 10 hours, after which the males still alive try to escape quickly. The females lay their eggs in several foamy egg balls ( oothecae ). Each ootheca can contain 100 to 300 eggs. After about six to eight weeks, depending on the temperature, the larvae hatch and take about six months to develop. They molt about every two weeks. The wings are only developed in the last, adult stage. The animals have a total life expectancy of around 8 to 10 months.

gallery

  • Yellow female

  • Underside of a female

  • Indian giant mantis head

  • Indian giant mantis from the Munich State Zoological Collection

  • larva

  • Young male in the seventh instar larvae in size comparison

literature

  • Claudia Heßler, Ingrid and Rudolf Bischoff, Michael Meyer: Mantids - Fascinating Lauerjäger . 2nd corrected and enlarged edition. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main 2008 ISBN 978-3-930612-45-1 .
  • Reinhard Ehrmann: Mantodea: praying mantises of the world . NTV, 2002, ISBN 3-931587-60-6 .
  • F. Tomasinelli: Praying Mantis - Brief Introduction to Lifestyle and Biology. In: Reptilia. 28, 2001, pp. 20-25.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Claudia Heßler, Ingrid and Rudolf Bischoff, Michael Meyer: Mantiden - Fascinating Lauerjäger . 2nd corrected and enlarged edition. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 111.
  2. ↑ Reinhard Ehrmann: Mantodea: Gottesanbeterinnen der Welt . NTV, 2002, p. 179.
  3. ↑ Katherine L. Barry, Gregory I. Holwell, Marie E. Herberstein: Female praying mantids use sexual cannibalism as a foraging strategy to increase fecundity . Behavioral Ecology, 19, 4, July 2008, pp. 710–715, ( Online , English)

Web links

Commons : Hierodula membranacea  - collection of images, videos and audio files