Well known Mantid/Entomolgy Journals?

[joossa]

Hi all. This question goes out to all of you that have done research in biology or entomology at the university level….

Basically, what are some well-known (frequently referenced) biogeography/ecology/mantid –related entomology scientific journals?

Thanks for the help.

-Joel

 

[Hypoponera]

The simple answer is "NONE". There are no journals that are dedicated to mantid research. The interest just isn't there. There are several journals that have had the odd mantid paper in them. Most of those papers use Chinese mantids to study prey capture related topics. Go to the library and check out "Preying Mantids". It does have a good compilation of published papers that you can then try to dig up.

 

[Christian]

Hypoponera is right. Most topics are split up between different journals. However, many mantid papers ralated to taxonomy and biogeography are published in the "Journal of Orthoptera Research".

 

[Hypoponera]

Christian,

Does that journal have a web site?

 

[Morpheus uk]

I get bored of anything about mantids in books, they always show pictures of boring chinese mantids or africans when you have all those interesting sp out there

 

[Christian]

@ Hypoponera: yes, search for "Orthopterist's Scociety". The journal requires a subscription. I have to subscribe at last. I always want it but never do it. However, some institutions have subscriptions, check this first. If your home insstitution has one, you don't have to subscribe too.

 

[Hypoponera]

Thanks Christian! I will have to look into getting a subscription as I doubt I will find a copy around here.

 

[joossa]

Thanks for the replies. I, too will try and see if my university has the subscription to the Journal of Orthoptera Research. I have found several articles in multiple journals, but variety in topic is scarce. It’s pretty disappointing... One would expect there to be a large compilation of data for mantids for the commonwealth of those who are interested/into the research.

My senior thesis is coming up in a couple of years. Since my area of specialization is mainly ecology and biogeography, I am interested in focusing my thesis on insects and invasive/introdiced species. However, I will need a good amount of publidhed research in order to do a literature review first.

The good thing is that I still have lots of time and flexibility. I guess the search will go on... To the library!!!

 

[Christian]

Well, mantids are not a good subject for impact studies of introduced species. Of course there are 5 species which were translocated from their native range, but as mantids are mostly "ecologically indifferent", there aren't great results to be expected. If you don't focus on invasive species there may be some interesting topics, though. I tried to get grants for an ecological study on mantids in the tropics but failed. There is just not much interest in it. Don't mistake the hobbyist interest with the (almost nonexistent) scientific one.

 

[Precious]

I get bored of anything about mantids in books, they always show pictures of boring chinese mantids or africans when you have all those interesting sp out there

Hey! Chinese are anything but boring! Common perhaps, but not boring! I love those guys. Such personality! Their ferocity is impressive as well. Being commonplace is just a result of being so very well adapted to a variety of environments. That and the three-hundred babies at a time thing.