praying mantis eating a wheel bug, unknown eggs
Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 9:12 PM
HELLO BUGMAN!
Just wanted to share this week’s playground “show” of a praying mantis DEVOURING a wheel bug. The class watched in horror/amazement. We had just seen our first wheel bug of this school year the day before.
We are also including a hatching photo we took this August. The eggs were stuck to the brick wall outside our classroom and we watched daily to see what was going to happen. We’d loved to know what was coming out! Thank you so much for your help!
Always looking for bugs,
Fours and fives in PA
Southeastern PA
Dear Teacher of Fours and Fives in PA,
We are gladdened to see that you have taken your classwork home and that your students will be able to find their answers online next week. Our only request is that in the future, you please don’t include multiple postings in one letter as it jumbles our already voluminous archives. Your Mantis photo is awesome in that it shows the Mantis devouring another beneficial predator. If the statistics were available, they might reveal that, since it pretty much sits higher up on the food chain, the Mantis may eat more beneficial insects than problematic ones. Since Mantids are often found on flowering plants, they consume their share of pollinators.