Nature Bulletin No. 643-A   May 28, 1977
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:THE PRAYING MANTIS AND WALKING STICK

Like the farmer who saw his first circus giraffe and whispered to his 
wife, "There ain't no such animal, " a stranger to certain of the odd-balls 
of the insect world can hardly believe his eyes. Among the weirdest of 
them all, seen once in a while in this region, are the Praying Mantis and 
the Walking Stick. Everything about them seems to be greatly 
exaggerated.

Both of these queer creatures belong to that great group of ancient 
insects called the Orthoptera (meaning the Straight-Wingers, in Greek) 
along with cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers and katydids. While 
their numerous relatives have wings and feed on plant materials, our 
walking sticks have no wings at any stage and the praying mantis, just 
to be different, eats nothing but living insects and other small animals. 
Both are masters of the art of camouflage.

The praying mantis gets its name from the long spiked forelegs which 
are bent in an attitude of prayer as it perches motionless on a leaf or 
twig or flower waiting for a victim to come along. Suddenly, these 
forelegs lash out faster than the eye can follow, and snatch the bee, 
beetle or such between its lower leg and upper leg. Then, the triangular 
head with its two great eyes and strong cutting jaws leisurely bends 
down and bites out chunks like we eat corn on the cob. Afterwards the 
leg spines are cleaned and its face washed like a cat. On the watch for a 
kill, the head can be turned to look over its shoulder.

The Chinese mantis, imported to the east coast in 1896, is occasionally 
seen in the Chicago region as the result of egg cases brought in for the 
control of garden pests. About three inches long with four nearly 
transparent wings, the long thin upper body is tilted upward from a 
flattened lower body. The Carolina mantis, a smaller native species of 
the southern states, is found in southern Illinois.

Mantises mate in early autumn after which the bride often eats the 
groom for her wedding breakfast. Soon she lays clusters of several 
hundred eggs on trees, shrubs and grass stems. In each cluster the eggs 
are arranged in layers and enclosed in a foamy secretion which hardens 
into a brown waterproof egg case the size of a walnut. The following 
spring the numerous young come tumbling from the egg case and 
scatter -- but not before many an infant mantis has dined on his brothers 
and sisters. They feed ravenously, go through several molts, and are 
fully grown by late summer.

Walking sticks can be plentiful among the leaves of trees or in grass 
and yet not be seen because they mimic a twig or stem so exactly. The 
two local species, one in the woodlands and one in prairie areas, have 
bodies about four inches long and one-eighth inch wide when adult. 
They even have body rings that look like growth rings on a twig, In 
early summer they are green like the fresh new growth of plants; later 
they become brown as the vegetation changes color. The six long 
spindly legs add to the deception. Actually, the name is misleading 
because they do very little walking.

In autumn the female walking stick drops a few hundred shot-like eggs, 
one by one, and lets them fall where they may. In spring the little green 
young emerge and slowly clamber upward.

The praying mantis is a pious fraud.