FNZ 19 - Mantodea (Insecta) - Introduction
Ramsay, GW 1990. Mantodea (Insecta), with a review of aspects of functional morphology and biology. Fauna of New Zealand 19, 96 pages.
(
ISSN 0111-5383 (print),
;
no.
19.
ISBN 0-477-02581-1 (print),
).
Published 13 Jun 1990
ZooBank: http://zoobank.org/References/9BB875C2-A2DF-4BCE-9CAF-985FFC0FCAB2
Introduction
Praying mantids have held a long-standing fascination and interest for mankind, and feature prominently in the traditions and mythology of some cultures - in Africa, Europe, China, and Japan, for instance; they appear in old African cave drawings, and on a Roman coin (K.M. Rudall, pers. comm.). They have been the subject of folk-tales and of dances; a ballet, 'Mantodea', choreographed by Vassili Sulich and first performed in Las Vegas in 1976, was presented during the 1984-86 seasons by the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company (Anon. 1985). The public perception of mantids as ferocious predators is also sometimes exploited in cartoons, for example 'The Preying Douglas' (Abacus 1986).
What are the biological realities underlying these images and perceptions?