Animal world
Ground beetle and Mantis

Crimea is separated from the mainland by a narrow isthmus inaccessible to migration, so there are animals here that are not found anywhere else. But still, there are more of those who can be seen in the Caucasus, and in Asia Minor, and on the islands Aegean Sea, and in the Balkans. Perhaps, in the distant past, it connected these zoogeographic regions mainland sushi - Pontida. Over time, it sank to the bottom of the Black Sea, separating our peninsula and isolating its plants and animals. Be that as it may, about 15 million years ago, the ancestors of elephants, mastodons, ran along the steppes and hills of the Eastern Crimea, giraffes, antelopes, ostriches, three-toed hipparion horses ran. Monkeys climbed the branches of a coniferous-broad-leaved forest. IN rock of that era, petrified tree trunks are found with growth rings, hard and strong, like bone or stone.

Eastern Crimea is a mountain forest, and foothills, and a steppe, and the shores of two seas, and the seas themselves. There are a lot of animals here: although the climate is not as mild as on South Shore, but less civilization. 57 species of mammals live in Crimea, 17 of them are very rare. The Red Book of Ukraine includes the steppe mouse, the large jerboa, the steppe ferret, the common badger, and the small water shrew. Next in line are raccoon dogs, ground squirrels, black rats, martens, and roe deer. Approximately 4,000 species of beetles live in the Crimea.

--

Winged decoration and danger in the mink. Quantity dangerous plants and animals increases as you move towards the tropics. So Crimea in this respect (when compared with exotic resorts and even with the Mediterranean not far from us) is more than harmless.

On the forest paths there is a Crimean ground beetle - a large (up to 5 centimeters) purple beetle. She lives only in the Crimea and as a rare endemic must be protected. The beetle cannot fly; it crawls on the ground and therefore, unfortunately, often dies under the wheels of cars and under the feet of inattentive tourists. This harmless beetle is trying to protect its fragile life: if you disturb the ground beetle, it will release a drop of a caustic liquid that scares away birds, but is not dangerous for humans - that's the whole defense. Our beautiful beetle feeds on snails, caterpillars, other beetles, slugs and terrestrial mollusks. The ground beetle lurks its prey in ambush or catches up, moving quickly on long, strong legs, and tears it apart, wielding powerful jaws. The Crimean ground beetle can live 10-11 years.

The praying mantis is a large insect whose front legs are always raised, like human hands, when it raises them in prayer to the sky. This strange, fun-to-see predator, up to five centimeters tall, sits for a long time, hiding in the leaves, and lies in wait for small insects. Having tracked down the prey, the praying mantis grabs it with its clawed "hands" (so that's what they were raised for!) and, in the words of the German zoologist A. Bram, "quietly begins to devour." It happens that ferocious and brave praying mantises fight with sparrows. Five species of praying mantis live on Karadag. It is believed that a person who accidentally sits on a praying mantis will be happy for the rest of his life.

The praying mantis is an arthropod insect that belongs to the mantis order (lat. Mantodea, Mantoptera).

The origin of the international name "Mantodea" is not known for certain. Russian definition this detachment received due to some similarity of the forelimbs of an insect with human hands, bent at the elbow joint. In this position, the praying mantis is in ambush and waits for prey, shaking its head from time to time. Because of this feature of behavior, as well as due to associative perception, an insect resembling a person who reads a prayer got its name.

You need to feed the domestic inhabitants of the terrarium regularly. Nymphs are given food in small portions daily, but adult praying mantises should be given food every 2-3 days. The amount of food should correspond to the size of the pet, which should always be full. You should not give the praying mantis more than two insects at one feeding, although large individuals are allowed to be treated with three fodder insects. "Prey" intended for feeding can be launched inside the terrarium or given with tweezers.

Do praying mantises need water?

Praying mantises do not need to drink; they can get water from food. Also, the insect receives moisture by spraying plants in the terrarium with water.

• In the fifties of the twentieth century, a program was developed in the Soviet Union, the purpose of which was to use praying mantises to protect agricultural plantations from pests. Attempts were not crowned with success, because in addition to them, praying mantises also ate bees and other beneficial insects.
• In some regions of South Asia, praying mantises are bred to kill malarial mosquitoes and flies that carry infectious diseases.
• One style of Chinese martial art"Kung Fu" was developed based on the movements of the forelimbs of the praying mantis. The arsenal of this technique includes twelve basic movements that the praying mantis performs while hunting or defending from natural enemies.
• When attacking an enemy praying mantis that is larger than it, some species of these insects raise up the lower pair of wings, which have a pattern in the form of a huge eye. At the same time, they begin to make swinging movements, rustling their wings and rubbing the lower leg of the forelimbs on the surface of the thigh, while making clicking sounds. If the act of intimidation fails, the praying mantis may simply fly away or charge into the fray.
• The praying mantis insect is often mentioned in ancient myths or legends of Asian, African and European countries. The Greeks attributed the ability to predict the appearance of spring to praying mantises, but among the inhabitants of China they were the standard of stubbornness and greed.

The praying mantis is found all over the world, there are more than 2000 species of these insects.

Most people are afraid of them because they move strangely, they look intimidating. But a praying mantis bite is not terrible for a person. Their mouths are too small to bite a human, but with ease, a female praying mantis can eat her mate's head.

The reason there are rumors is that they can "bite" because of the hair on their legs. When they go, they lightly rub against the skin, a person feels it as tiny bites.

This predatory insects, which use powerful front legs to catch prey to grab and hold small animals.

While the smaller species, which mainly feed on insects and other invertebrates, are very large species will occasionally prey on small vertebrates such as frogs, lizards.

origin of name

The name "praying mantis" comes from the posture of holding their front legs as if they were praying. Most species are green or brown, so they can blend in with leaves and foliage, which allows them to patiently track down insects such as flies and grasshoppers.

When the praying mantis is threatened, he stands high, stretches his front paws and wings like a fan, and opens his mouth wide. This defensive stance is used to appear larger in order to intimidate the opponent.

However, some species have bright colors, patterns on the hind wings and the inner surfaces of the forelegs for the same purpose. If the pursuit from the intruder persists, the mantis may strike with its front legs, attempt to pinch or bite.

The strikes are quick as the blink of an eye, after which he will slowly devour the unfortunate victim slowly with his ultra sharp jaws.

They do not bite people on purpose, do not hurt home environment do not spread disease. However, touching their spiny forelimbs can feel like a bite.

Praying mantises are beneficial insects. Are eating different kinds other insects that are harmful to humans.

Is a praying mantis bite dangerous?

Although it almost never happens, the mantis can grab your finger and bite you.

He appeared quite suddenly at the moment when everyone set off on the way back from the mud volcanoes spitting fetid slurry.
And not just appeared, but blocked the dusty road, languidly staggering in all its almost microscopic growth.
Yes, yes, like our old friend.
But with that, at least everything was clear what kind of bird, but with this one ... everything is more complicated.
The youngest of us extended the finger of friendship to strangers, asking permission to pass through his domain...
We were kindly let in, but they never bothered to introduce themselves and name their species...

2. In fact, a lyrical digression is just a lyrical digression ...
But I did not determine the appearance of this inconspicuous comrade.
Given that only 7 species of Mantidae (that is, praying mantis) live in Crimea, this should not have been difficult, but ...

3. ... but not so simple.
Of the 7 species, we immediately sweep aside two types of empusa - striped empusa and sandy empusa - they look recognizable and specific.
In addition, we immediately dismiss two more characteristic species- Oriental iris and bolivarium short-winged - they have a completely different coloring and body layout.
Also, it cannot be an ordinary praying mantis (thus a traffic cop), because. the ordinary one has a different structure of the back-cloak, spikes and colors.
Two species remain - the Caucasian praying mantis and Ameles heldreichi (Crimean praying mantis).
But the first one should have a white spot on the elytra, and the structure is different, and the second one is extremely small (up to 2.5 cm), and in the first photo we see that it is much larger.
Although outwardly this view is closest to the one captured in the photo.
This is such a dilemma...

4. But God bless him, with a view.
He is handsome, like all praying mantises.
Especially when drunkenly staggering, dancing.
I don’t like making gifs, although in this case with the next photo it might be worth it)

5. Praying mantis dance

6. We transplant the praying mantis onto a branch and go on our way further along the dusty and incinerated Cimmerian steppe by the July sun ...

\

UPD. It's still a short-winged bolivaria.

My previous photos in the category:

So let's take a look several types of interesting creature. Central Asian wood praying mantis (lat. Hierodula tenuidentata) is an insect of the family Real praying mantises.

Dimensions of the tree praying mantis - 5-6 cm in males and 7-8.5 cm in females. Females 9 cm long are very rare. The color of the tree mantis varies from light green to dark brown, almost black. The antennae of the male are almost the same length as those of the female, only slightly thicker at the base. The width of the head is related to the length of the chest and to the length of the body as 1:3:5. Thus, if the length of the arboreal and common praying mantis is the same, then the arboreal head is 2 times larger, and the body is shorter, but more massive. Tree mantises are very voracious. Animal Life indicates that one tree mantis larva in 85 days of its development ate 147 aphids, 41 fruit flies and 266 house flies.
Besides , woody is much stronger than ordinary and can catch prey 2 times larger than ordinary can. There are no spots on the coxae of the forelegs of arboreal mantises, and the coxae of the hind legs are almost always noticeably darker than the body.
Pterostigma on elytra wood praying mantis is always white and stands out against the background of the entire wing, and the venation is almost not noticeable.
On the elytra of males , neither females have any stripes, but a pregnant female always has a thick dark brown stripe on her body. The wing muscles of male tree mantises are so well developed that they can fly without landing all night. Wikipedia

Meet this mysterious creature You can literally do everything Crimean peninsula… Below is an album of praying mantises found on the West Coast..

wood praying mantis


Photo of a black praying mantis
Fight of two praying mantises - the photo shows praying mantises from the Republic of Crimea West Coast
Fight of two praying mantises




black mantis

Mantis (Mantis religiosa). On inside coxae of the forelegs present black spot, often with a bright eye in the center. There are three common praying mantis color forms: green, yellow and brown. In the photo, male, green form (55-61 mm). Widely distributed in Europe, Asia and Africa. Predator. Hunts from ambush, attacking the victim with a lightning throw.
The picture was taken in the Astrakhan region.

A fight between two praying mantises - the photo shows praying mantises from the Republic of Crimea West Coast

common praying mantis - a typical predator - an ambush mimicking the surrounding plants. Lying in wait for the prey, it is inactive; when it appears within reach, it captures it with its front grasping legs, holding it between the spiked thigh and lower leg.
His posture while waiting characteristic, generally speaking, of all real praying mantises, and prompted Carl Linnaeus to give him the binomial name Mantis religiosa: μάντις in Greek means “prophet”, “foreteller”, priest, and religiosa from Latin - “religious”, since in this position the insect looks like a man folded his hands in prayer.
Unlike males , which feed on fairly small insects, huge, heavy females can attack insects of the same, and sometimes bigger size than themselves.

For man and Agriculture the praying mantis is harmless.

Attempts have been made use praying mantises as biological method pest control, however, although praying mantises successfully coped with this task, they also devoured everyone they could reach without asking which of them was useful and which was harmful.

Mantis - quite an interesting pet, which can be kept in a terrarium without any problems. The life span of the common praying mantis is about two months. At proper feeding this period can be doubled.

How is reproduction.

Mantis breeding - this is another curious story: the male is sacrificed to future offspring. female from behind rapid development The egg experiences a burning need for protein and immediately after meeting with the male (and sometimes during this meeting) devours him.
Sometimes the male manages to sneak away . A few days later, the female lays her eggs, secreting a frothy brown liquid that solidifies into a light capsule.

The capsule may there are from 100 to 300 eggs, and one female can hang several of them over the summer, giving birth to about a thousand offspring.
Capsules spend on stones , branches and blades of grass all winter, and in the spring larvae appear from them. They are very mobile and literally fall out of their winter apartment. Already after the first molt, the larvae become similar to adult praying mantises, only without wings. Another 8-10 lines should pass and they will become quite adults.
Like their parents, young pilgrims are voracious predators, although they consume smaller prey.

Photo: Roman Chernetsov

Mantis feeding