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i am so shy (26)
cataclysta
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 845 W: 165 N: 2096]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif) (5468) | Photo was taken last year in Ukraine on Crimea peninsula in typical mantis habitat. It was on steppes at the coast of Black Sea near Kerch. See the workshop
European mantis (Mantis religiosa)
Order: Mantodea
Family: Mantidae
Polish name: Modliszka zwyczajna
Predatory insect with very long life cycle. Five stages in male and six in females. Eggs are laid in a cocoon (ootheca). There is from 100 to 200 eggs in single cocoon.
Metamorphosis: Mantids are hemimetabolous insects. When the larve are similar in shape to the adult and there is no pupa stage the insects are called hemimetabolous (Hemi = part). Hemimetabolous insects are for example: grasshoppers, crickets, cicadas, mantids and dragonflies.
Length of body: male 4-6cm, female 4,5-7,5cm
Distribution: Almost cosmopolitan. Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe to 55˚ N. Transported by human to Canada and USA.
Habitat: Warm kserothermic meadows, steppes and moors
The most spectacular prey:
Frog eater
Jack the reaper
The strangler? |
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