Family Mantidae

Bodenheimer (Animal Life in Palestine, 1935) has this to say:
Both Mantis religiosa and Iris oratoria pass the winter as adults, into which they were transformed the preceeding autumn. The large green Sphodromantis viridis with a great yellow eye shaped spot on each elytron, behaves like Blepharopsis. In Jericho, oviposition starts in April while in other localities it takes place in June/July. The adults of Rivetina baetica live from May to November. In the summer, this long, narrow brown or yellow species runs over stubble fields in large numbers. It hibernates as a young larva.
Adults of the small gray-brown Ameles heldreichi occur from April to October, when they are active among the herbs on early mornings. the females have very rudimentary wings.
The premature death of all deviating individuals forces the life-history to be compressed within the annual cycle. Young larvae of Sphodromantis for example, die regularly during the winter. Thus only the large larvae survive to reach maturity in the following spring. Early developmental stages of Mantis and Iris succumb to the dry heat in the summer. The larger species oviposit 5-8 egg-cocoons, each of which contains 100-200 eggs. The cocoons of all the larger species are frequently parasitised by small Chalcidids (Podagrion pachymerum and Rielia manticida). The other stages have few dangerous enemies. Rivetina live on bare soil and deposit their eggs on or in the soil. Ameles, Rivetina and Iris live amidst low grasses and herbs and deposit their eggs on the soil or on stones while Mantis lives on shrubs and trees and deposits its eggs on branches. Locomotion is rather slow in most Mantids. With the exception of Ameles and Empusa they are very clumsy flyers.

Iris oratoria oratoria (Linnaeus, 1758)

Bodenheimer, 1937

Bet Dagan

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