Subject: Fwd: [Tweeters] praying or preying mantises
Date: Aug 23 09:44:00 2007
From: Dennis Paulson - dennispaulson at comcast.net


Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Cannings, Rob RBCM:EX" <RCannings at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca>
> Date: August 23, 2007 9:34:44 AM PDT
> To: "Dennis Paulson" <dennispaulson at comcast.net>
> Subject: RE: [Tweeters] praying or preying mantises
>
> Hi Dennis: I'm impressed with the response, and I've already got
> what I need for my paper. This has been really interesting and
> useful and I appreciate your efforts on my behalf. If it's
> appropriate to a bird listserve, you may want to send the following
> to your colleagues, just to thank them for me and to put their
> observations in the context of my project:
>
> Thanks to all those who have sent me, via Dennis, information on
> Mantis religiosa in Washington State. Although I've never examined
> museum specimens of mantids from the state, I assume all the large
> green and brown specimens are M. religiosa. This European species
> was introduced into eastern North America in the 1890s and is now a
> common species throughout much of the eastern United States and
> Canada. It was introduced from Ontario into the southern Interior
> of British Columbia to control grasshoppers in 1938 and 1939 but
> these introductions were successful only in the southern Okanagan
> Valley. Small populations have persisted from Okanagan Falls south
> to Osoyoos but, especially since the late 1990s, the species? range
> has expanded from the South Okanagan north at least to Kamloops and
> east to Nelson. This expansion north and east is probably the
> result of both natural dispersal and movement aided by human
> activity. Mantid oothecae (egg cases), especially, are laid on all
> sorts of solid substrates and can be transported long distances on
> trailers and other vehicles. In the core of its Okanagan range,
> this mantid has become much more common than before this expansion
> was noticed. M. religiosa has also been collected on Vancouver
> Island, but very rarely, and there seems to be no established
> population in coastal BC as there is in Washington.
>
> I don't know the origin of the Washington populations, but some
> probably spread south from BC and separate introductions in the US
> also might have occurred. I also am ignorant of the species' status
> farther south in Oregon or elswhere.
>
> The note on Washington mantids in the Washington State University
> Extension series notes that several introduced species may be in
> the state, but it doesn't give any information on abundance or
> distribution on any of them in particular. I think most of what
> people are seeing are M. religiosa. One of the species mentioned in
> the WSU extension note is the larger Chinese mantid (Tenodera
> aridifolia). This is the only species that is legally sold in BC
> for biocontrol in greenhouses or plant nurseries (or as pets) and
> surely it must escape or be released periodically -- but no wild
> populations have been reported in BC as far as I know. There are
> established populations in eastern Canada and the US and in
> California, at least.
>
> The Ground Mantis (Litanuetria minor) is a native, small (less than
> 35 mm long), grey-brown species of the dry grasslands of eastern
> Washington and the Okanagan Valley of BC (and farther afield in the
> West). Females are usually short-winged and flightless. It's the
> only mantid native to Canada and also Washington's only native
> species.
>
> Mantis religiosa can always be identified by the black-ringed white
> spot at the base of the inner face of the front coxa (the long
> basal part of the front leg).The green and brown individuals
> represent two colour phases. Both are equally common in BC.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Rob
>
> Dr. Robert A. Cannings
> Curator of Entomology
> Royal British Columbia Museum
> 675 Belleville Street
> Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 9W2
> Phone: (250) 356-8242. Fax: (250) 356-8197
> E-mail: rcannings at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

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