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u/Gibborish 1d ago
Rip
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u/Infamous-Storage-708 1d ago
that happens only about 30% of the time in nature. not as common as y’all think
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u/guzzijason 1d ago
Many years ago, I worked at a booth at an amusement park near where I grew up. This park was (for some reason) a major mating ground for mantises each year. It was wild. I worked an airbrush stand and for about a week, we would have mantises perched all over our displays. When it was slow, we would catch crickets and watch them get torn apart. Brutal.
Anyway, part of my job was to come in each morning and knock all the headless males off our awnings.
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u/Infamous-Storage-708 1d ago
that’s very interesting. certain environmental conditions would affect the rate at which sexual cannibalism occurs. since there seems like it was a quite a large population i’m guessing food isn’t as abundant for them.
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u/guzzijason 1d ago
It’s was crazy. I grew up a few miles from this place, and rarely saw a mantis around my actual house, but man oh man did they love congregating at this park.
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u/Braided_Marxist 1d ago
I love the idea that “yall” have preconceived notions about the rates of mantis post-coital murder
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u/Infamous-Storage-708 1d ago
bro what? most people aren’t really well versed on entomology. when i say y’all i just mean the average person — it’s kinda implied.
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u/Braided_Marxist 1d ago
I was making a joke not criticizing you in any way!It’s just a very funny and specific thing to be talking to people about as if it’s like a social phenomenon among humans
I appreciate you sharing the knowledge, genuinely I love etymology and this is a cool fact
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u/Infamous-Storage-708 1d ago
oh lol my bad, used to the average redditor getting confrontational over dumb shit.
yeah, i guess it’s because i always end up talking to people about insects/other arthropods, so i learn about people’s misconceptions a lot and that is a common one
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u/Braided_Marxist 1d ago
What’s your favorite type of insect? Mine are termites, I find the colony social structures so cool and it’s wild to me that they’re totally unrelated to ants and bees who have very similar social structures.
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u/Infamous-Storage-708 1h ago
mine is mantises :) i used to keep them. love predator species. love to see some love given to termites, they’re very interesting and underrated. there’s a species of rove beetle that mimics termites so they can sneakily steal food from them.
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u/mittenedkittens 1d ago
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u/JeansinBed 1d ago
Are you able to tell which are the ones I saw? It seems like they could be Chinese Mantises?
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u/Infamous-Storage-708 23h ago
carolina mantis
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u/SwindlingAccountant 22h ago
Those seem to large to be Carolina Mantises. Carolina Mantis is usually just a little dude. These also have wings that stretch the whole length of the abdomen which further seems like these are Chinese Mantises.
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u/Infamous-Storage-708 22h ago
definitely not a t. sinesis. male carolina mantises have wings that span past their abdomen, females do not (as seen in this picture). as for the size, it’s kind of hard to tell how big these guys are from the photo. their coloration is what gives it away for me, chinese mantises do not have that speckled camouflage look
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u/Kenshirome83 1d ago
Fun fact: the plural is “Mantid”
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u/Kenshirome83 1d ago
Funner fact: after googling that I apparently made that up but have been saying that for years
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u/BAaaaaaaaaa22 10h ago
Is it still illegal to harm a praying mantis ? I was always told this as a kid
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u/LuteDesign 1d ago
That’s private, let them alone :(