She loves warmth and tolerates drought: the praying mantis. With climate change, the bizarre mantis are now also conquering new habitats in their native regions.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – The heat-loving praying mantis has also been found in Thuringia for a few years. In the meantime, 28 proofs of the species “Mantis religiosa” have been documented, as the Ministry of the Environment told the German Press Agency. They documented individual occurrences of the mantis near Jena, on the Kyffhäuser, on the Hainleite near Sondershausen and on the edge of the Unstrut lowlands near Roßleben on the border with Saxony-Anhalt. The insects have also been sighted on the Finne near Rastenberg, in the Werratal near Wasungen and in the Thuringian Basin near Kölleda.
“We expect observations of the species again this year, also from other areas,” said a ministry spokesman. The European praying mantis was first recorded in August 2018 in Bavaria. According to the information, the occurrences in Thuringia are not comparable to those in the neighboring state of Saxony-Anhalt, where there were 400 sightings last year.
In Brandenburg and Saxony there are also much larger deposits in sandy areas, which have also been observed for some time. The species has been known in Brandenburg since 2007. The Potsdam Natural History Museum has collected more than 700 pieces of evidence, it said.
According to the ministry, the insects have not yet been systematically recorded in Thuringia. However, observations and corresponding information are collected and checked by the Thuringian State Office for the Environment, Mining and Nature Conservation and the Erfurt Natural History Museum. Such observations are also of interest because the spread of such species can be understood in connection with climate change. This also applies to the spread of scares originally found in southern Europe, such as the southern oak cricket (Meconema meridionale) and the wine grouse (Oecanthus pellucens).
Originally from Africa, the praying mantis is known for its mating behavior, in which the female occasionally eats the male’s head. The praying mantis folds its fangs as if it wants to pray – this is how the mantis got its name. It feeds mainly on other insects such as wasps, bees, grasshoppers and ants.
