Sensei the Mantidfly takes a drink

[Tomato]

Hey guys, here's reporting about Sensei, my pet mantidfly. Things have been going ok with him (him, I think..) so far as I can tell. I went away for the weekend, so I caught him a couple of flies to carry him over. Just got back and caught him another fly which he immediately grabbed and ate with a hearty appetite

Then I decided that the substrate in his jar (thickly layered and moistened tissue paper) was just completely littered with wings, legs, and other miscellaneous bug parts. Some areas looked like they were getting mouldy. Time to change the tissue in there. So I got Sensei into a small vial. Doing this is a little funny: I hold the vial so that his butt faces it's opening, then I carefully "attack" him with a twig, without actually touching him with it. The twig frightens him, so like a good mantidfly, he puts up his dukes and bats at it while backing up into the vial.

So I threw out the old bug-graveyard substrate, washed the jar with tap water, and put in some fresh tissue paper. The sides of the jar had drops of water left over, as I didn't dry it off. When I put him back in his jar, I watched as he ambled about the sides, drinking the droplets stuck to the glass.

Now, I know that's nothing special for most of you guys, but I'd never seen an insect drinking before. It was really mesmerising, watching his tiny mandibles pull water in until the droplet shrinks away, then he moves on to the next one until he's done. I don't have a spray bottle at the moment, so I've been moistening the substrate with an eye dropper. Sensei's been getting his fluids from prey, I suppose. It has now become clear to me that that isn't enough. Anyway, just wanted to share my new observation, as it was pretty exciting for me to see him actually drinking.

-Tomato

 

[Peter Clausen]

I always enjoy reading accounts of observations on unusual (pet) bug groups. Maybe I missed it in an earlier post, but I'd like to see a photo of Sensei.

 

[hibiscusmile]

It is hard to believe he is not a mantis, I want another photo too.

 

[Tomato]

After poking around Google, I am almost certain that Sensei is a Mantispa styriaca. This places him among the Neuroptera (mantidflies, lacewings, and owlflies), not even in the same order as mantids. The bizarre thing is that, morphologically (and from what I've read about mantids, behaviorally), he really has a lot in common with mantids. For example, he has a highly developed visual system. He only attacks living moving prey, he responds strongly to sudden changes in lighting, and tends not to "hunt" his victims, letting them come to him instead. Like mantids, his two front legs are modified into powerful claws which he uses to grab and hold prey, though he can't take down anything bigger than a small fly or leafhopper (he's only barely more than an inch long). He does fold these claws somewhat differently than a mantid does. If a mantid holds a position of prayer, Sensei holds a position more like Rodin's "Thinker." The most prominent morphological difference between mantispids and mantids, of course, are wings. Sensei has a pair of transparent, delicately innervated wings (hence, "Neuroptera"). He never uses them, but that is only because of the small size of his jar. I recently saw a larger mantidfly (same species, I believe) hanging out by an outdoor light which did not waste time in flying away when I got too close. He spends almost all of his time on the jar's sides, rarely walking on the horizontal floor or hanging from the twigs I put in there. Because of the morphological similarity with mantids, I have assumed he is male because he has many abdomenal segments. However, I don't know if that rule applies to mantispids.

Another important difference between mantidflies and mantids is the life cycle. Whereas mantids create oothecae that spawn many immature nymphs which much molt several times as they grow, mantidflies are hypermetamorphic. I could find no information online about their egglaying strategies, but I have learned (and witnessed to some degree) the bizarre metamorphic process that brings them to adulthood. The larva is tiny and, if you don't know what you're looking for, you probably will never see it. I sure didn't. So what happens is this: the larva boards a female spider. I don't think the spider species matters, but I could be mistaken. If the spider turns out to be male, the larva will have to transfer itself to a female either when the spider mates, or when he is consumed by the female after mating. When the female spider spins her egg case, the tiny larva needs to immediately get off the underside of her abdomen and slip itself into the silk as she is spinning the case. Some mantidfly species are able to wait for her to finish spinning it and burrow in when she is done. At any rate, the larva allows itself to be encased along with the spider eggs so that it can feed off the eggs until it is ready to molt into an adult.

As for Sensei, the story began with a Cheiracanthium mildei that woke me up one night with a bite to my shoulder. I kept the spider in a small plastic jar, completely oblivious to the stowaway she was harboring. I must say that I didn't feed the C. mildei very well, but she ended up spinning an egg case eventually. I imagine that is the reason that Sensei is a bit smaller than his species tend to be: he grew up on skimpy spider eggs. I had never even heard of mantidflies before, and he looked just like a miniature mantid with wings. When I woke up one morning to find that my spider had a new roommate, the only explanation I had was that a mantid had magically appeared in that little jar. I even saw the molt still hanging on the side of the jar. It was pretty remarkable, I must say.

Anyhow, I'm at work at the moment, but more pictures will come soon.

-Tomato

 

[hibiscusmile]

That was wonderful information! Kinda like the Sponge-bob show where Patrick and Sponge bob take care of Sandy's Caterpillar, when they wake up one morning the cat has turned into a butterfly and they think it has eaten the Caterpillar, I really enjoyed it and learned something, I can imagine your surprise when u found out.

 

[lancaster1313]

I love Spongebob!

 

[hibiscusmile]

Did u see the episode?

 

[lancaster1313]

Did u see the episode?

Yep, I had them all recorded on the DVR for my daughter.

 

[Tomato]

I always enjoy reading accounts of observations on unusual (pet) bug groups. Maybe I missed it in an earlier post, but I'd like to see a photo of Sensei.

Finally got around to uploading a few decent shots. I use just a small digital camera, so forgive the mediocre macro quality. Sensei's probably a bit over an inch long, in case the photos don't give a sense of scale.

also please excuse the grubby glass

Breakfast menu: live long legged fly

One of my favorite pictures of him. He's in a small glass vial while I changed the substrate in his jar.

Yep, sure does look to me like a miniature mantis with wings. I guess that's why they call them "mantidflies."

-Tomato

 

[lancaster1313]

I like the way it holds its forelegs. Thier wings are noticeably different from mantids wings, they carry them in a different way. Does it have 2 wings or 4? Oh, and that face in the last pic is cute, I like the pose.

 

[Tomato]

I like the way it holds its forelegs. Thier wings are noticeably different from mantids wings, they carry them in a different way. Does it have 2 wings or 4? Oh, and that face in the last pic is cute, I like the pose.

4

 

[hibiscusmile]

Iwouldlove to have some, they are unbelievable!

 

[Peter Clausen]

I am particularly interested in seeing a photo of the exuvia, if possible, and the remains of the egg sac. Did you happen to keep the sac? I wonder if any spiders will emerge and I wonder what it would look like if you opened it (assuming Sensei exited discretely). I suppose those are mutually exclusive.

 

[Tomato]

I am particularly interested in seeing a photo of the exuvia, if possible, and the remains of the egg sac. Did you happen to keep the sac? I wonder if any spiders will emerge and I wonder what it would look like if you opened it (assuming Sensei exited discretely). I suppose those are mutually exclusive.

Unfortunately, I was not thinking carefully at the time. I threw out the exuvia, along with the egg sac, when I let the C. mildei go. Fortunately, however, there is an exuvia stuck to the base of one of our outdoor lights which is identical to the one left by Sensei. For now, I've left it alone, though I might go and take it later and get some better pictures of it.

I can tell you that no spiders emerged from the egg sac, though it never showed any obvious signs of rupture. Admittedly, I did not examine it at all before getting rid of it. My excuse for such poor form is that, at the time, I still thought I had some weird looking mantid nymph and I was utterly puzzled as to how it got in that little jar. I had no clue that I should have been poking around that spider egg sac...

-Tomato

 

[Tomato]

Iwouldlove to have some, they are unbelievable!

You can probably find them in your area if you look hard enough and get lucky. I did see another live individual a few weeks ago, in fact. Our back door has a large window on it, and at night, the light from the room attracts lots of bugs, so this other individual that I found was hanging out on the glass, having an evening meal. I also have seen at least two green lacewings this summer (one of them was at a train station in New York City!). Beyond Sensei and that other individual, however, I have not seen any mantispids and I would not be surprised if the exuvia in the photo belongs to that other guy that I saw on the door glass. They do not appear to be particularly common. I read on the 'net that they are elusive, but may occur in larger numbers in some years. That explains why this is the first time in my life of watching bugs that I have ever seen this creature.

-Tomato

 

[Peter Clausen]

Awesome that you were able to find and take that photo...thank you!

I was mostly interested to see it because I thought it might shed some light on what the larva would look like. Not much help in that regard, but it is fun to imagine what the larvae might look like!

Take a look at Tomato's molt photo and think...

I imagine something crawling out of that skin resembling the Fiji mermaids you see at Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museums Just for the sake of fun I'll imagine them to look like that until I see a photo proving otherwise!

Fiji Mermaid Photos

 

[yeatzee]

This is incredible Tomato! I'll have to start a thread like yours for my 3. They look noticeably different than yours, and are much much smaller. I just took a few shots of the smallest of the group and will post them later.

Mine do not seem aggressive by any means... fingers crossed they even eat

 

[Tomato]

This is incredible Tomato! I'll have to start a thread like yours for my 3. They look noticeably different than yours, and are much much smaller. I just took a few shots of the smallest of the group and will post them later.

Mine do not seem aggressive by any means... fingers crossed they even eat

Live prey isn't enough, it's gotta be alive and moving. These guys are very visual and highly sensitive to movement (Sensei notices immediately, for instance, when I walk in the room, and he jumps back a little). Don't bother trying to dump lots of bugs in there with them either. If they don't eat, leave a single feed insect in there and by the morning it will be eaten. If not, take it out and let it go and get another one. That is how I have fed Sensei so far, and it seems to work.

-Tomato

 

[Tomato]

Awesome that you were able to find and take that photo...thank you!

I was mostly interested to see it because I thought it might shed some light on what the larva would look like. Not much help in that regard, but it is fun to imagine what the larvae might look like!

Take a look at Tomato's molt photo and think...

I imagine something crawling out of that skin resembling the Fiji mermaids you see at Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museums Just for the sake of fun I'll imagine them to look like that until I see a photo proving otherwise!

Fiji Mermaid Photos

AARG I can't believe this happened in a jar in my room and I missed it!!!!!! Bug Guide has an amazing photo sequence showing Dicromantispa spp. (Sensei is D. sayi...almost sure of that) having emerged from a spider's egg sac and molting: http://bugguide.net/node/view/89526/bgimage

-Tomato