Small fishing insect

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Small fishing insect
Small fishing insect (Ameles spallanzania), female

Small fishing insect ( Ameles spallanzania ), female

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Mantis (Mantodea)
Family : Mantidae
Subfamily : Amelinae
Genre : Ameles
Type : Small fishing insect
Scientific name
Ameles spallanzania
( Rossi , 1792)

The Small Mantis ( Ameles spallanzania ) is a Mantis from the family of Mantidae , subfamily Amelinae . A noticeable feature of the species is the upturned abdomen of the female, a characteristic that is usually only present in juveniles of various other fishing horrors.

features

male

The small fishing rod reaches a body length of 18 to 25 millimeters and is therefore a very small species of fishing rod. The basic color is brown, gray or green, mixed-colored specimens also occur. The female has only short stub wings and a broad, clearly upwardly curved abdomen . The male is fully winged. The eyes are tapered. The small fishing insect is a fast runner and good jumper because of its long legs.

Similar species

The female of the closely related gray fishing insect ( Ameles decolor ) also only has stubby wings, while the male is fully winged, but the female of this species does not have a broad and upwardly curved abdomen. Both species are common in Europe, but prefer different ecological niches.

Occurrence

The small fishing insect is native to the European Mediterranean area and North Africa. It lives in dry places rich in bushes. It differs from the gray fishing rod, which prefers grasslands .

The distribution area of ​​the lesser fishing insect in Europe does not extend as far into northern latitudes as that of the European praying mantis and not as far south as that of the genus Empusa .

Way of life

Female with a captured honey bee

The small fishing insect lurks at a certain height above the ground, for example on the plants of the real lavender , for prey.

In contrast to other species of fishing horror, the male is usually not eaten during mating. After mating, the female lays the 1 cm large ootheca on rocks or on house walls. The development time is at least two weeks until the nymphs hatch , but it can also last several months, extended by a diapause , in order to enable wintering in the ootheca. This strategy has been observed inland, away from the Mediterranean climate. In the warm climate influenced by the sea, however, the hatched nymph overwinters. Both overwintering strategies are also known from other European species of mantis, for example the European praying mantis always overwinters in the ootheca, but always as a nymph in the Empusa species . The type of wintering for the small fishing insect is flexible and depends on the average temperatures.

The males of the lesser mantis, like the Egyptian praying mantis and many other species of mantis, can perceive ultrasound very well. In flight, they react to the locating sounds of bats and can thus escape these predators. The females that cannot fly are less endangered by the bats and have less well developed hearing in the ultrasound range. In both sexes, the unpaired tympanic organ lies on the abdomen in the area of ​​the metathorax .

Taxonomy and systematics

The small fishing insect was first described by Pietro Rossi in 1792 . The specific epithet spallanzania honors the Italian naturalist Lazzaro Spallanzani . There are 26 genera within the subfamily Amelinae, to which the small fishing insect belongs. The subfamily is unlikely to be monophyletic . It includes the smallest species of fishing horror. At the beginning of the 21st century, Ameles africana was recognized as identical to the small fishing insect.

gallery

literature

  • Heiko Bellman: The new cosmos insect guide. Kosmos Naturführer, Kosmos (Franckh-Kosmos), 1st edition, 2010 ISBN 978-3-440-11924-2

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Roberto Battiston & Carlo Galliani: On the life-cycle of Ameles spallanzania (Rossi, 1792) (Insecta, Mantodea). Atti Soc. it. Sci. nat. Museo civ. Sturgeon. nat. Milano, 152, I, pp. 25–35, January 2011 PDF ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / linnea.it
  2. David D. Yager & Gavin J. Svenson: Patterns of praying mantis auditory system evolution based on morphological, molecular, neurophysiological, and behavioral data. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 94, pp. 541-568, 2008
  3. ^ Gavin J. Svenson & Michael F. Whiting: Reconstructing the origins of praying mantises (Dictyoptera, Mantodea): the roles of Gondwanan vicariance and morphological convergence. Cladistics, 25, pp. 468-514, 2009, p. 484 doi : 10.1111 / j.1096-0031.2009.00263.x PDF
  4. Roberto Battiston & P. ​​Fontana: A contribution to the knowledge of the genus Ameles Burmeister, 1838, with the description of a new species from Jordan (Insecta Mantodea). Atti della Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati, Series 8 B, Classe di Scienze, Matematiche, Fisiche e Naturali, 5B, pp. 173-197, 2005

Web links

Commons : Small fishing insect ( Ameles spallanzania )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files