First Flight

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Krissim Klaw

Krissim Klaw

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The other day my female chinese, Soothslayer, tested out her new wings for the first time when she decided to fly over and land on me. I always get a kick out of watching my chinese mantises' leg dangling attempts at flight, and less than graceful landings. :lol:

The whole thing got me curious about other member's experiences with mantis flight? Any funny stories to share? Having mainly kept chinese mantises, they are the only ones I'm familiar with. I know some of the lighter smaller mantises can be rather good at flying and wondered if members who have kept them had noticed they had more of a tendency to fly around? Also has anyone ever had a mantis fly when chasing down its prey?

 
My male mantises like to fly, although not for catching prey. I think male orchid mantises look awesome when they fly.

 
i d my european female jump a short distance to grab a cricket using her wings to help, she was kinda flying, but she anded in a heap. she got her cricket tho! today she jumped for one from the plastic side, caught it, and landed on her back. she bit off a leg and started eating before she righted herself. it was all really amusing to watch.

 
I rarely get to see my mantids fly...although I don't really give them a chance.

I have some male Tenodera running loose around my bug house, they have just turned adult, and often fly when I try and pick them up.

 
OGIGA- Yah I've noticed my male mantises often enjoy flittering and running about when I let them out of their cages. I imagine part of it is probably a natural instinct to move out in search of females. The females on the other hand act like the little queens they are and focus on hunting and fattening up while letting the males do all the hard work of finding them. Typical females! :lol:

echostatic- Oh so interesting to know. I have had several mantises leap and catch prey though none were adults, thus no wings to help them out. My current female, Soothslayer did a huge leap when she was younger off my hand to catch a cricket off of the screen of her cage. She ended up flipping upside down when landing and quickly went to munching away on her catch. It was seeing things like this that made me wonder if an adult might use its wings when launching a similar attack. So awsome to see my hunch was right.

Ian- I let my chinese out a lot, and them being the little love bugs they are, are more than willing to amuse me by flying over and landing on me. Or at least trying to if they aim just right and have enough lift. :lol:

I've only once had a mantis fly away in an effort to escape, and it was a good thing. It occured with my first mantis. I left the room to brush my teeth while she was out relaxing. I left the door open thinking the cat wouldn't be a problem because I would see him heading down the hallway if he tried to sneak into my room. As it turns out the little bugger was already in my room. He had been curled up on my top bunk spying on me and the mantis the whole time, just waiting for an opening.

Next thing I know I hear the familar sound of my cat jumping from my top bunk to my lower bunk where my mantis was sitting. Raced down the hallway with my toothbrush in hand expecting to see carnage and instead I find my clever female had flown herself across my room to safty. :p

 
Hey, I love your pictures you draw, and the ants I have fly off every time I open their doors. I spend more time looking for them :( I have to be careful, my shepard "Abby" likes to hunt down bugs and eat them, I keep leaving the door open or just cracked, and I taught her when she was a pup to open and close doors, so I left the Bugatorium today and forgot the Wide shields were in there on the floor. You should of seen me run :lol: Luckily she missed seeing them...wheeeew close call. ;)

 
I was going to relate this story in my Continuing post about my Chinese mantid but this is a better place....

Flying Story:

Lu, my Chinese is starting to slow down a little and I was hoping she was okay so I put her on the patio screen door on the inside to let her have room to move around. I misted her and was just watching her walk on the screen as I got dinner ready. She was there for about 40 minutes and it was beginning to be sundown (fading light) and I was watching her out of the corner of my eye when a fluttering green and brown male mantid came barnstorming at the screen and bounced off. I started laughing and opened the door to see if he lit on the wall or patio any where but never found him.

I was real sure it was a male mantid because of the flutter of the wings. Very erratic and when he hit the screen it was funny. I was wondering if the attractent was pheromes or visual sighting? Lu never moved. The male never came back even after another 30 minutes.

I am thinking of setting her out on the screen again on the outside. She is so fat I don't think she will fly away but then I would be taking a chance of a bird getting her....

Regards,

 
hibiscusmile- Thanks for the compliments on my pictures. Glad to hear your wide sheilds managed to use their mantis stealth to avoid doggy detection. Makes me wonder though what my papillon would do if he came face to face with one of my mantises. He's such a little scardy cat my Chinese would probably ward him off with just a few swats of her claws. :p Oh, and by the way your Bugatorium is beyond awsome. My mantises and me are totally jealous. :lol:

lionsden112002- Sounds so interesting, hope you are able to find her a mate. Sadly there aren't enough wild mantises around where I live to do that. Back before a hurricane took of our porch I used to have my mantises hang out there all the time for fresh air and never had the luck of one of my adult females attracting any boys.

 
My Chinese male is a very clumsy flier, he usually doesn't fly anymore. He always flies in circles though, and smacks into walls, falling to the floor. :p

My Stagmomantis carolina used to be a HEAVY flier. And I mean heavy. The instant he was out of his cage he'd take off. He was a darn good flier also, changing directions erratically, and he was fast. I bet birds would probably have trouble catching him in the wild. :blink:

Yeah, smaller mantids are better at flying. Chinese and those bigger mantids generally have more trouble. My P. Ocellata did a really good display of flying, he was fast and didn't crash land. ;)

 
I work at a nature center and loved showing my Chinese Manitses off (only one left, and he is spending his "retirement" days at my house). I had a rule that if the mantis started to fly, I'd say "FREEZE" and everyone would have to stay perfectly still until he landed and was safe. People, especially kids, loved to see them fly, and as you can imagine, I have many stories. Anyone afraid of the mantis was to go to the back of the room. One girl was a bit afraid, but her mom said she'd stand in front of her to protect her. Of course, the mantis made a beeline for the mom and landed on her head. The daughter thought that was so funny & cool, and even held the mantis after that.

I hosted a birthday party of 8-year old girls who wanted me to "make the mantis fly." I told them I couldn't make him do anything. As soon as I said that, he was off, and he wouldn't stop. He flew from place to person to place. Every time I picked him up he took off again. The kids were giggling & screaming (in fun), and he wasn't trying to get away from them at all. In fact, he kept flying towards them, even though he could have gone in any direction away from them. I got him back on my hand and in front of the room, when he decided to give them one last "scare." He jumped off my hand and the girls jumped too, running out of the room laughing and screaming. He actually followed them in a very controlled flight, making two very graceful 90 degree turns to get out the door (into another room- not outside). It was hilarious!

One more. In another class, the mantis landed on the wrong girl's leg. She started crying hysterically. Of course, my main concern was getting my poor mantis away from her safely. After he was safe, I tried to calm her down and told her that the mantis was very scared, too. That didn't work. Still crying. For a long time. She'll probably never come back and will be telling her therapist about this in 20 years. Win some, lose some!

 
RodanThunderLizard said:
I work at a nature center and loved showing my Chinese Manitses off (only one left, and he is spending his "retirement" days at my house). I had a rule that if the mantis started to fly, I'd say "FREEZE" and everyone would have to stay perfectly still until he landed and was safe. People, especially kids, loved to see them fly, and as you can imagine, I have many stories. Anyone afraid of the mantis was to go to the back of the room. One girl was a bit afraid, but her mom said she'd stand in front of her to protect her. Of course, the mantis made a beeline for the mom and landed on her head. The daughter thought that was so funny & cool, and even held the mantis after that.I hosted a birthday party of 8-year old girls who wanted me to "make the mantis fly." I told them I couldn't make him do anything. As soon as I said that, he was off, and he wouldn't stop. He flew from place to person to place. Every time I picked him up he took off again. The kids were giggling & screaming (in fun), and he wasn't trying to get away from them at all. In fact, he kept flying towards them, even though he could have gone in any direction away from them. I got him back on my hand and in front of the room, when he decided to give them one last "scare." He jumped off my hand and the girls jumped too, running out of the room laughing and screaming. He actually followed them in a very controlled flight, making two very graceful 90 degree turns to get out the door (into another room- not outside). It was hilarious!

One more. In another class, the mantis landed on the wrong girl's leg. She started crying hysterically. Of course, my main concern was getting my poor mantis away from her safely. After he was safe, I tried to calm her down and told her that the mantis was very scared, too. That didn't work. Still crying. For a long time. She'll probably never come back and will be telling her therapist about this in 20 years. Win some, lose some!
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Great story there! I hope to be able to experience something like this one day. :)

 
Guest_RodanThunderLizard- Thanks for sharing your stories. I have also experienced very similar things with my chinese mantises. They are such friendly little bugs and seemed to love flying over to greet people rather than flittering away. So far I haven't had a chinese yet who hasn't been more than willing to fly over to me. Often put on a little flying show with friends and have taken them to parties because everyone always gets a kick out of seeing them. People are often surprised when they find out that many adult mantises can fly in addition to crawling around. Oh, and I also have a similar rule about only letting non bug shy people around my babies. Last thing I need is one of my overly friendly buggies jumping or flying to someone and getting squashed out of fear. :eek:

Thanks everyone for sharing their experiences. So fun to read about everyones' little flittering mantises. :lol:

 

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