Tag mantis

Macleay’s Spectre Stick Insect Baby

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The Paris Zoo is nurturing baby Macleay’s Spectre Stick Insects born in March 2022. They are in a separate terrarium to keep them safe. The baby Stick Insect is called a nymph.

The female Macleay’s Spectre Stick Insect breeds parthenogenically, meaning that she lays eggs that hatch without being fertilized. The female lays 100-1,200 eggs on the ground or on a plant. The eggs hatch after about 4 months into nymphs, which look like ants. The nymphs eat plants and grow into an adult stick insect. 

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European Mantis

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The European Mantis (Mantis religiosa) is a large insect in the Mantidae family of mantids, commonly known as the Praying Mantis.  

The front pair of legs of the European Mantis has spikes and are bent in a praying position. It is long and green and can be camouflaged in plants. It can also be brown, reddish-brown, or yellow-green. It has a hard shell, called an exo-skeleton. The male and the female have wings, but the wings of the female are too small for flying. It has a triangular head on a thin flexible neck. It has large compound eyes.

Its movement is rhythmic. It sways back and forth or side to side. 

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