Little devil flower
| Little devil flower | ||||||||||||
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Little devil flower ( Blepharopsis mendica ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Blepharopsis | ||||||||||||
| Rehn , 1902 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Blepharopsis mendica | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1775) |
The small devil flower ( Blepharopsis mendica ) is a fishing insect from the Empusidae family . It is the only species of the genus and in their area of distribution, which from the Canary Islands on the Sahel , parts of the Sahara and East Africa as far as the front and South Asia to find enough in many dry warm habitats.
features
In the small devil flower, both sexes reach a body length of 52 to 61 mm. Characteristic is the diamond-shaped, serrated pronotum and the green-white or brown-white stripes, which can be found in both the adults and the nymphs . Adult animals can be distinguished by the single combed antennae in females and double combed antennae in males . Even with the nymphs sex determination is possible based on the number of Abdominalanhänge which located at the bottom of the abdomen ( abdomen are located) and of which own more males one. Both sexes have fully developed wings, usually green and white patterned, with which they can fly well.
Subspecies and distribution
The following two subspecies of Blepharopsis mendica are recognized:
- Blepharopsis mendica mendica ( Fabricius , 1775): The nominate form is in Afghanistan , Egypt , Algeria , Ethiopia , Israel , Jordan , Libya , Morocco , Mauritania , Pakistan , Somalia , Tunisia , Iran , Lebanon , Niger , Oman , Sudan , Chad , Widespread in the Canary Islands, Turkey and Cyprus .
- Blepharopsis mendica nuda Giglio-Tos , 1917: This second subspecies is found in Ethiopia, Arabia , Palestine , Somalia, and Yemen .
Way of life and reproduction
The little devil flower prefers sunny spots on mostly thorny shrubs in dry and warm areas. The animals begin to mate about one to two weeks after adult moulting. The copulation usually takes more than four hours. If the temperature is high, the first oothec is taken off just a few days later . Usually more oothecs follow every four to six days. There are often six or more in total. After an average of five to six weeks, 30 to 80 light brown nymphs with conspicuously black eyes usually hatch in the evening per ootheca. Depending on the temperature, these shed their skin every six to nine days. Among the animals from the Canaries, the older, then mostly subadult, nymphs overwinter. Adult males only live two months at daytime temperatures above 35 ° C, females around six months. Their life expectancy increases at lower temperatures.
Keeping in the terrarium
When keeping this fishing insect in the terrarium, it should be noted that, like in natural habitats, it needs high temperatures of 30 to 40 ° C during the day or at least 23 ° C at night and is very hungry for light. The terrarium size for an adult animal should be at least 20 × 20 × 30 cm (width × depth × height). Since males and nymphs are not overly aggressive, they can be kept in groups if there is enough space and food. The back and side walls should be covered with cork or similar material, since Blepharopsis mendica, like all representatives of the Empusidae, cannot walk on smooth surfaces such as glass. Live flying insects such as the gold fly come into consideration as food .
swell
- ↑ a b Reinhard Ehrmann: Mantodea - Praying Mantis of the World. Natur und Tier Verlag, 2002, ISBN 978-3-931587-60-4 .
- ↑ a b Claudia Heßler, Ingrid Bischoff, Rudolf Bischoff: Practice Guide: Mantids: Fascinating Lauerjäger. Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-930612-45-3 , pp. 140-142, 198.
- ^ Daniel Otte, Lauren Spearman and Martin BD Stiewe: Mantodea Species File Online . Version 1.0 / 4.0. (accessed on February 2, 2012)
- Wolfgang Schmidt, Friedrich-Wilhelm Henkel: Pocket atlas of invertebrates for the terrarium: 180 arthropods and snails in portrait. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 2010, ISBN 3800151561 .
