This little lady munching on her lunch was snapped by Kelly O'Hara in Papamoa.
The miomantis caffra – more commonly known as the springbok mantis – is a species of praying mantis that is native to South Africa. It was discovered to have spread to New Zealand in 1978.
The miomantis caffra is native to South Africa. Photo: Kelly O'Hara
The female springbok mantises will eat a male after and sometimes during mating. This time round she's opted for another import, a juicy paper wasp rather than her partner. Good choice.
New Zealand's native species of praying mantis, Orthodera novaezealandiae, are said to be in decline after males of this species try to mate with the springbok species but are immediately killed, particularly in northern parts of New Zealand.
2 comments
Anything...
Posted on 28-05-2016 20:33 | By morepork
...that eats wasps gets my vote. Have to wonder though how destroying the males improves the gene pool. I guess if they have more males than females it can work, but it is a disturbing image...
Love it
Posted on 29-05-2016 12:15 | By cptn scully
Love it that they eat those paper wasps but have seen them happily devouring all the Monarch butterfly caterpillars on my swan plants and that really bugs me. They cleaned up over half of them and so we had way fewer Monarchs this year Damn shame really
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