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Climaciella brunnea
a rather unusual insect. Although they have grasping mantid-like raptorial front legs they are not closely related to mantids (praying mantises). Mantispids are in the order Neuroptera, and thus more closely related to the green lacewings that come to porch lights in the summer than to mantids. Their front legs are used in the same way as a mantid's, however, in catching small insect prey for food.
brunnea has a very interesting life cycle. During their 3-4 week adult life stage, inch-long females may lay as many as several thousand short-stalked eggs, grouped on the underside of plant leaves. The eggs hatch and each tiny larva waits for a passing spider. The larva then boards the spider and rides around on it until the spider lays eggs. At this time the tiny mantispid larva crawls off the spider and into the egg sac, where it feeds on the spider eggs in the security of the silken spider egg sac. Different species of mantispids specialize on different species of host spiders. C. brunnea larvae are known to parasitize the eggs of wolf spiders.
56 Comments (1–25)
Thanks Jennifer
Beautiful
Thanks: rams, blogman, James and headphones boss. James yes it does :)
cool really sweet
Looks like a mantis
AWESOME!
Incredible, Amazing, Impressive, Congratulations !!!
Thank you Diaz, Alice and Emily
This is absolutely amazing!!! So incredible!
Super Cool!
Increible!
I am blown away by all the nice compliments...Thanks everyone!
Congratulations RickBohler wow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) such an interesting series !
Wow it really does look just like a wasp, that's crazy! Great shots!!! :)
I never knew such an amazing insect existed. WOW! Great series of photos! Congratulations on SOTD. Much-deserved. I am very impressed.
wow!!!! Congratulations RickBohler this is really amazing great spotting....
congrats, nice shot!!!
Congratulations - thanks for sharing this!
Thanks Rieko, I was like a kid who just found a box of candy. I really thaught it was a wasp at first. I did not move the same as a wasp.
Amazing!! Congratulations. I have never seen this before, so thank you very much for sharing this.
What a awesome surprise to wake up to. thanks everyone for all the nice compliments. This really made my day :)
Congratulations Rick Bohler !!
Congratulations!!
Congratulations Rick on this SOTD! Beautiful capture and very informative writeup.
Congratulations !!