Comments on: Extinct For 80 Years: Giant Walking Stick Rediscovered

By: red_pill_junkie

red_pill_junkie — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:24:16 +0000

LOL, I guess we both would have made poor sidekicks for Indy.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:36:24 +0000

red_pill_junkie- I have an appreciation for all of nature’s creatures, including these giant walking sticks. These giant bugs have every right to exist as any other creature on this planet, as long as they are doing it well away from me and not crawling around on me like the one creeping up your back right now.

You’re welcome.

By: Sordes

Sordes — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 08:32:52 +0000

At least in Germany it is strictly prohibited to kill, catch or keep the native preying mantis. But this is also because there is only one single species of mantid which occurs in Germany, Mantis religiosa, and it inhabits only a small handful of locations, mainly areas with very mild climate.
This species was also introduced to the United States and Canada.

By: flame821

flame821 — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 05:09:03 +0000

@ thylo -

I can’t remember which school but I was definitely in North America, either Montreal or Philadelphia. (I know I wasn’t in the UK yet) So apparently my teacher was either repeating an urban myth or he didn’t want us taking beneficial insects (spiders, mantis or anything that eats other bugs) out of the environment and decided to tell us this to make sure we didn’t collect them. -shrugs- no ideal, but in that day and age you did what teacher said as authority figures weren’t really questioned and corporal punishment was still allowed under ‘loco parentis’ (temporary/replacement parents?) or something of that nature.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 04:48:46 +0000

It is not illegal to catch or kill a praying mantis in the USA. Indeed, the story is an urban/rural myth.

By: thylo

thylo — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 04:44:24 +0000

@flame821- what part of the world was that in? just looking it up quickly last night it doesn’t seem that any mantids are endangered in north america (though the canadian population (in southern B.C.) is naturally small as it is an extension of the larger population south of the border), so I figured you were talking about asia or africa or oceania. /shrug
so figured rather than guessing I would just ask.
btw- I saw a documentary on mantids last week and there are some amazing forms out there… i had no idea they were so diverse (and very few species practice the famous post-coital cannibalism).

back at the thread topic- amazing phasmids! i hope that they can protect them. It would be great if the will was there to destroy the invasive rats (from Lord Howe Island) and re-introduce the phasmids to their extirpated range, but I don’t know if that is feasible.

By: flame821

flame821 — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:50:52 +0000

I don’t know what the proper name is.

Tis a greenish stick like insect with large mandibles, the females eat the males after mating. I was told they were a protected insect by my biology teacher way back in grammar school when we had to collect insects (not bugs, insects, he was very stern regarding this, he didn’t want arachnids) for our marking period project. He told us grasshoppers and crickets were fine but under no circumstances were we to touch a praying mantis as they were protected by law. Never thought to question anyone about it as I’ve only seen a few in the wild over my lifetime.

By: red_pill_junkie

red_pill_junkie — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:08:34 +0000

Aaaw, you don’t like those big six-legged creatures, mystery_man? think of them as fairies, and the nightmares will end

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:28:45 +0000

Thylo- You… yes, that may be so.

By: thylo

thylo — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:33:28 +0000

Mystery Man- praying mantis is a colloquial term for an order, Mantodea, that exist in various species worldwide. It is possible that flame821 was referring to somewhere… not america.