''Tarachodes afzelii'', commonly known as the Tanzanian ground mantis, is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
praying mantis
Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...
in the family
Eremiaphilidae
Eremiaphilidae is a small Old World family of praying mantids, based on the type genus '' Eremiaphila''. As part of a major revision of mantid taxonomy, this family now contains the subfamily Tarachodinae, which includes tribes and genera pre ...
. It is native to woodland in Western and Central Africa.
[Ene, J. C. "The Distribution and Post-embryonic Development of Tarachodes Afzelii (Stål), (Mantodea: Eremiaphilidae)." Taylor and Francis Online. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.]
Description
''Tarachodes afzelii'' protects itself using
camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...
. It is an olive-brown or grey-brown colour, sometimes with dark bars or a dark midline, which makes it resemble the bark of the trees on which it lives. The body is flattened and held pressed against the surface of the trunk or branch so that its shadow does not give it away. Males have grey wings, which make them rather easier to detect, and females have
vestigial wings and are unable to fly.
[
]
Distribution
''Tarachodes afzelii'' is native to Central and West Africa where it is found in the savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...
woodlands that separate the rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
from drier grassland.[
]
Ecology
Most mantids do not guard their eggs or care for their young. The female ''Tarachodes afzelii'' lays a batch of up to two hundred eggs contained in a cryptically-coloured ootheca
An ootheca (pl. ''oothecae'' ) is a type of egg mass made by any member of a variety of species including mollusks (such as ''Turbinella laevigata''), mantises, and cockroaches.
The word is a Latinized combination of ''oo-'', meaning "egg", f ...
. She then broods
Broods is a New Zealand musical duo from Nelson, composed of Georgia Josiena Nott on lead vocals, with older brother and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Allan Joseph Nott on production and backing vocals. They released the single "Bridges", which w ...
the eggs by concealing the ootheca under her abdomen as she rests on the bark. She defends the eggs by driving away the tiny torymid wasps that try to lay their eggs inside the ootheca, and the ants and beetle
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
s that would like to feed on the eggs. Although the eggs can develop without the mother brooding them, the hatching success rate is much lower in unbrooded eggs.[
Remarkably, ''Tarachodes afzelii'' continues her care of her ]nymphs
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are typ ...
after they hatch out in about three weeks.[ For about two days, they cluster round her, and gather together again in her vicinity after a disturbance. At this stage they are vulnerable to attack by ]jumping spider
Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), family Salticidae. As of 2019, this family contained over 600 described genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders at 13% of all sp ...
s, and ants of the genera ''Dorylus
''Dorylus'', also known as driver ants, safari ants, or siafu, is a large genus of army ants found primarily in central and east Africa, although the range also extends to southern Africa and tropical Asia. The term siafu is a loanword from Swah ...
'' and ''Megaponera
''Megaponera analis'' is the sole species of the genus ''Megaponera''. They are a strictly termite-eating (termitophagous) ponerine ant species widely distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa and most commonly known for their column-like raiding format ...
''. It is conceivable that the female might catch prey and allow her offspring to consume it, but such behaviour has not been observed.[
The first and second ]instar
An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...
s are Batesian mimics
Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, after his work on Bu ...
of black ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...
s, while bigger instars and adults, neither of which are ant mimics, are predators of those same ants.
See also
*List of mantis genera and species
The following list of mantis genera and species is based on the "Mantodea Species File", which is the primary reference for the taxonomy shown here.
The insect Order (biology), order Mantodea consists of over 2,400 species of mantises in about 460 ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarachodes Afzelli
Tarachodes
Insects described in 1871
Mantodea of Africa