Mantis Research Articles

Amazons Are Back: Absence of Males in a Praying Mantis from Uruguayan Savannas.

With a broad distribution throughout South America, Brunneria subaptera (Saussure)(Coptopterygidae) is the most abundant praying mantis species in Uruguay, mostly associated with grassland vegetation. Their body coloration can vary between green or brown sepia. The recent catalog of Uruguayan mantids showed that all specimens of B. subaptera from the collections in Uruguay were females, suggesting an absence of males in natural populations. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of female-only populations of B. subaptera in Uruguay. Moreover, we analyzed the genetic variation and estimated the time of the most recent common ancestor of the species. We performed bimonthly samplings in two localities in Uruguay for 1year and we sexed the individuals. We extracted DNA from the abdominal tissue of adult females and sequenced a fragment of the mitochondrial cox1 gene to assess the genetic diversity and to estimate diversification times. We did not find any males in either of the studied localities. The age estimates revealed a recent origin of the species (2.33Ma), and there was no genetic differentiation between the individuals from Uruguayan localities. This absence of males of B. subaptera documented in the sampled locations suggests that the species reproduces by thelytokous parthenogenesis. This study opens promising venues for future research into reproductive strategies and polymorphism in South-American praying mantises that inhabit one of the largest areas of grasslands in the world, currently under dramatic deterioration and reduction.

First record of Stagmomantis limbata (Hahn) (Mantodea: Mantidae) from Chiapas, Mexico

First record of Stagmomantis limbata (Hahn) (Mantodea: Mantidae) from Chiapas, Mexico

New records of praying mantis (Mantodea) from Thailand

New records of praying mantis (Mantodea) from Thailand

The Eocene Protohierodula crabbi Ross, 2019 cannot be reliably assigned to Manteidae (Insecta: Mantodea): A reply

ABSTRACTI accept Schubnel & Nel's (2019) opinion that Protohierodula belongs to the clade Artimantodea, that it cannot be reliably assigned to the family Manteidae and should be regarded as family incertae sedis.

On a summer collection of mantids (Insecta: Mantodea) from Lorestan province with nine new records

In late summer 2016, the first author collected 34 specimens from nine species of Mantodea from Lorestan, chiefly Kuhdasht, Eastern part of the province. Although nine species were determined as new records for this part of the country, more searches in different seasons may lead to finding more species even new ones because this group of insects poorly studied in Iran especially in mountainous western part of the country. It is argued that much more diversity from a short time collecting effort is an evidence of our poor knowledge of the fauna of Iranian mantids. The present work is the first study on this region of Lorestan province which led to reporting nine species for the first time namely, Blepharopsis mendica, Empusa hedenborgii (Empusidae), Ameles persa, Bolivaria brachyptera, Mantis religiosa, Microthespis dmitriewi, Oxyothespis persica, Rivetina caucasica (Mantidae), Iris oratoria (Tarachodidae).

The QARMA Block Cipher Family. Almost MDS Matrices Over Rings With Zero Divisors, Nearly Symmetric Even-Mansour Constructions With Non-Involutory Central Rounds, and Search Heuristics for Low-Latency S-Boxes

This paper introduces QARMA, a new family of lightweight tweakable block ciphers targeted at applications such as memory encryption, the generation of very short tags for hardware-assisted prevention of software exploitation, and the construction of keyed hash functions. QARMA is inspired by reflection ciphers such as PRINCE, to which it adds a tweaking input, and MANTIS. However, QARMA differs from previous reflector constructions in that it is a three-round Even-Mansour scheme instead of a FX-construction, and its middle permutation is non-involutory and keyed . We introduce and analyse a family of Almost MDS matrices defined over a ring with zero divisors that allows us to encode rotations in its operation while maintaining the minimal latency associated to {0, 1}-matrices. The purpose of all these design choices is to harden the cipher against various classes of attacks. We also describe new S-Box search heuristics aimed at minimising the critical path. QARMA exists in 64- and 128-bit block sizes, where block and tweak size are equal, and keys are twice as long as the blocks. We argue that QARMA provides sufficient security margins within the constraints determined by the mentioned applications, while still achieving best-in-class latency. Implementation results on a state-of-the art manufacturing process are reported. Finally, we propose a technique to extend the length of the tweak by using, for instance, a universal hash function, which can also be used to strengthen the security of QARMA.

Catalog of insect type specimens preserved at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science with corrections of some specimens.

This article presents a list of insect types preserved in Kunming Natural History Museum of Zoology (KNHMZ). As of March, 2015, 3 412 type specimens belonging to 266 species/subspecies of 37 families in 9 orders (Odonata, Isoptera, Mantodea, Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera) are included. Information corrections of some specimens are provided in this article.

Video: Mantises leap with carefully controlled spin

Video: Mantises leap with carefully controlled spin

Diversity and abundance of insect species at Kota Damansara Community Forest Reserve, Selangor

A study was conducted on the diversity and abundance of insect species at Kota Damansara Community Forest Reserve in order to determine the richness of the forest insect fauna. A total of 774 insects from 13 Orders and 79 Families were recorded. This study shows that Coleoptera (42.63%), Hymenoptera (17.96%), Diptera (10.08%) and Orthoptera (10.85%) were the most dominant Orders in the Forest Reserve. The highest insect diversity was observed in Diptera (Shannon’s, H’ = 2.67), while Dermaptera, Isoptera, Mantodea and Phasmatodea (Shannon’s, H’ = 0.00) were the lowest. However, the highest insect evenness was observed in Blattodea (Evenness, E = 0.36). This study also found that the abundance of insects in Kembit zone was the highest (Margalef index, = 8.51) compared to other zone sites.

A Click Beetle Larva (Coleoptera: Elateridae) Preying Upon an Antlion Larva (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae)

The snake-like larvae of Cardiophorinae, commonly called wireworms, aresoil-dwelling or live in rotten decaying wood. They are elongate and smooth witha rather well-developed head with a prominentfrontoclypeus and peculiar, exter-nally toothed mandibles (Klausnitzer 1991-1999; Klausnitzer et al., 2000). Theyare highly mobile, moving with considerable speed through substrate. Some lar-valCardiophorinae are voracious predators, feeding on soil-dwelling insects andearthworms, although little is known about the specific insects upon which theyfeed. Antlion larvae are sand-dwelling insects and this paper documents the firstcase of a Cardiophorinae larva feeding on an antlion larva (Neu roptera: My r me -leontidae).Our knowledge of predation on both adult and larval antlions is limited, al -though adult antlions are considered to be prey for reptiles, birds, mammals, andmany invertebrates, including scorpions, spiders, and insects (Gepp and Holzel,1996; Gepp, 2010). Adults are also known to be consumed by robber flies anddragonflies, and predators with raptorial forelegs, such as mantids (Man todea)and mantidflies (Neuroptera: Mantispidae), have been observed to catch and eatadult antlions (Devetak, unpublished). Larval antlions in dry sandy habitats havebeen reported to be eaten by lizards, birds and hedgehogs (Gepp and Holzel,1996; Gepp and Klausnitzer, 2005; Gepp, 2010). Until now, stiletto fly (Diptera:Therevidae) larvae are the only recorded insect predator of larval antlions, asreported by Gepp and Klausnitzer (2005) on larvae of the European antlion,

Offshoring: secure or open to the praying mantis?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate and gain knowledge into the reasons why a UK‐based wholesaling company outsourced its information technology and call centre services, and what security measures were put in place to protect the sensitive information they hold in and transmit via their information system to prevent misuse of sensitive information, and to highlight any challenges the company faced connected with offshore outsourcing.Design/methodology/approachThe research in this paper is exploratory and draws on prior research following a company's journey of outsourcing its network security and contact/call centre services to two offshore Indian companies, and subsequently discusses the issues surrounding maintaining the security and control of the systems.FindingsThe paper shows that offshore outsourcing of security management and contact/call centre services can be managed and organised successfully.Research limitations/implicationsThe one case study limits the findings – they may not be generalisable.Originality/valueFor researchers and academia, the paper adds to the literature on outsourcing and call centre work and may be of interest to companies who are considering offshore outsourcing.

Mantid (Insecta: Mantodea) fauna of Orissa with some new records for the state

Mantid (Insecta: Mantodea) fauna of Orissa with some new records for the state

A new species of praying mantis from India

A new species of Amantis is described from Kozhikode, Kerala, India. Characteristic differences between the other species is provided.

Praying Mantids as Symbols for Headhunting

Praying Mantids as Symbols for Headhunting

Praying mantids in Saskatchewan

Praying mantids in Saskatchewan

Pollen Feeding and Fitness in Praying Mantids: The Vegetarian Side of a Tritrophic Predator

Although the importance of omnivory in food webs has been established, the community niche of generalist arthropod predators such as praying mantids is usually assumed to be at most bitrophic, feeding on herbivores and other carnivores. As with most predators, mantids often are food limited in nature. Flowering plants in their environment offer mantids an opportunity to obtain high-protein pollen, a potential vegetarian alternative to their normal arthropod prey. Although some arthropod predators have been shown to feed occasionally on pollen, the extent to which they gain fitness from this behavior is unclear, and often assumed to be minor. In replicated laboratory tests, Chinese mantids, Tenodera aridifolia sinensis (Saussure), actively fed on pollen just after hatching, and on pollen-laden insects as adults. Pollen feeding enhanced fitness of these mantids by: 1) preventing starvation of nymphs at egg hatch in the absence of normal insect prey; 2) increasing body mass of nymphs fed pollen in addition to normal prey; and 3) allowing adults that were fed both pollen and insects to maintain the same fecundity on fewer insect prey than those fed insects alone. These predators are therefore tritrophic because the extent of their omnivory includes a fitness-enhancing plant product in addition to herbivore and carnivore prey. Pollen feeding may explain higher fecundity of females located on flowers, and also may enable these and other generalist predators to maintain high population densities when animal prey are scarce, which has potential consequences for the rest of the community.

The Praying Mantids

The Praying Mantids

Remarks on some American mantids of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, and a description of a new species ofXystropeltis Rehn from Ecuador

Remarks on some American mantids of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, and a description of a new species ofXystropeltis Rehn from Ecuador

Decay and mineralization of mantis shrimps (Stomatopoda; Crustacea); a key to their fossil record

Experiments were carried out on decay and early diagenetic mineralization in the stomatopod Neogonodactylus as a basis for the interpretation of fossil specimens of mantis shrimps. Neogonodactylus has a robust cuticle that is heavily mineralized in places in contrast to the decapods Crangon and Palaemon, which have been the subject of similar taphonomic experiments. Decay over 25 weeks resulted in a continuum of morphological stages: (1) swollen, due to osmotic uptake; (2) ruptured, as the exoskeleton split; and (3) partially decomposed, including weakening of the cuticle, decay of the soft-tissues, and disarticulation and fragmentation of the exoskeleton. Two categories of mineralization occurred; the precipitation of crystal bundles of calcium carbonate, and the replacement of soft-tissue and cuticle in calcium phosphate. Calcium carbonate formed as: (1) crystal bundles of various shapes; (2) crusts on the outside of the cuticle; and (3) an amorphous crystalline mass within the cuticle. The amount of soft-tissue mineralized in calcium phosphate increased throughout the experiment. In the later stages the hepatopancreas was often completely mineralized. Muscle tissue was replaced to a lesser extent and mostly in small fragments. Nerve ganglia were occasionally mineralized. The degree of mineralization was much greater than in decapod shrimps, presumably reflecting the higher calcium content and relatively phosphorus-rich cuticle of the stomatopod. The stages of morphological decay observed in these experiments can be identified in fossil stomatopods. SEM observations of fossil material have revealed phosphatized soft tissues similar to those found in the decaying carcasses. The experiments indicate that stomatopods have a relatively high fossilization potential. Their scarce and fragmentary fossil record must be a function of factors other than decay and degradation.

Grasshoppers and Mantids of the World

Grasshoppers and Mantids of the World