The Praying Mantis    [14-01-2008] The praying mantis is a very unique-looking hunting insect. It has short, broad wings. The body is long and thin. It has a triangular-shaped head with a large eye on each side. Their eyes are sensitive to the slightest movement up to 18 meters away! Their arm-like legs have sharp hooks to help kill their victims. At rest, they seem to be "praying" holding their "ands" together. Praying mantises have very powerful jaws used for eating its prey. They have a great appetite for other insects and bugs such as moths, mosquitoes and flies. They also eat butterflies, spiders and even small tree frogs, lizards and mice. Sometimes the females even eat the males! There are about 2,000 kinds of praying mantises in the world. The biggest praying mantises are the Tenodera and the Archimantis. They are 15 centimeters long. The smallest praying mantis is the Bolbe pygmaea. It is only one centimeter long. Breeding season is in summer. After mating, the female will lay groups of 100-400 eggs. Praying mantises hatch eggs differently than other insects. They make a sticky substance that helps attach the eggs to a stick or a twig. Then, they leave the eggs attached all summer. When spring comes, the baby mantises come out of their eggs. Young mantises eat small insects. They will shed many times before they are full grown. It takes an entire summer for them to mature to adulthood. Praying mantises can be found all over the world. Most praying mantises are green or brown. But the tropical flower mantises are usually light colors such as pink. In fact, they look like flowers. So other insects often land on them to get nectar! Many people think praying mantises are harmful to humans. But that is only partly true. In fact, they can be helpful, too. Praying mantises are wonderful pest hunters. They keep down the population of bugs that are a threat to farming. Even though they look scary, they are pretty tame to humans!     출처: 어린이 영자신문 키즈타임즈 (www.kidstimes.net)