Carolina Mantis
This is one of our native mantis species, making a meal of an introduced species-- a european honeybee. Mantids have excellent publicists and have gained a reputation of being extremely beneficial insects, while the reality is that they are voraciously indiscriminate and are as likely to eat another "good" bug as they are to eat a pest, perhaps more so. All the same, I'm in the habit of leaving the native mantises alone, although I will dispose of the chinese mantises which are larger and have been documented dining on hummingbirds and other small birds. The flower is white crownbeard (frostweed), and the location here is Forest Park in St Louis, Missouri
Carolina Mantis
This is one of our native mantis species, making a meal of an introduced species-- a european honeybee. Mantids have excellent publicists and have gained a reputation of being extremely beneficial insects, while the reality is that they are voraciously indiscriminate and are as likely to eat another "good" bug as they are to eat a pest, perhaps more so. All the same, I'm in the habit of leaving the native mantises alone, although I will dispose of the chinese mantises which are larger and have been documented dining on hummingbirds and other small birds. The flower is white crownbeard (frostweed), and the location here is Forest Park in St Louis, Missouri