Updated on 9-5-2011 7:33AM
Praying mantis
螳螂目(大螳螂、小螳螂、 寬腹螳螂、微翅跳螳螂、樹皮螳螂、花螳螂、姬螳螂、)
| Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Mantodea Family: Acanthopidae Family: Amorphoscelidae Family: Empusidae Family: Eremiaphilidae Family: Hymenopodidae Family: Iridopterygidae Family: Liturgusidae Family: Mantidae Family: Sibyllidae Family: Tarachodidae Family: Thespidae |
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Most of
the roughly
1,800
species of
mantis-often
called
praying
mantises-spend
their time
sitting and
waiting,
seemingly at
prayer.
These highly
skilled
hunters and
masters of
disguise
have
fascinated
humans for
thousands of
years; the
ancient
Greeks first
used the
term mantis,
meaning
“prophet.” At first glance the animals, with their strong hind legs, resembled grasshoppers. But they lacked wings, which most grasshoppers have. Their front legs were studded with thorns, like those that praying mantis use to capture and hold their prey as they eat them alive. But the heads and hind legs of these baffling insects were clearly different from those of a mantis. From above they looked almost like plant-eating walkingsticks. Yet their second body segment was too short for a walkingstick, and their guts contained body parts from other insects, proof of carnivore. |
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