Impurest's Guide to Animals #48 - Wasp Mantidlfy

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Edited By ImpurestCheese

Well we're ripping through the month of January, with such joys of Burns Night and the Chinese New Year (AKA February) coming up fast. Last week the elite tactician known as the Tentacled Snake showed us all the best way to catch a fish. This week’s creature is also a merciless predator, with an added vampiric side as well. Hope you guys enjoy.

_____________________________________________________________________

Issue #48 - Wasp Mantidfly

[1]
[1]

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Arthropoda

Class – Insecta

Order – Neuroptera

Family – Mantispidae

Genus – Climacella

Species – brunnea

Related Species - Despite having features of Wasps and Preying Mantises, the Wasp Mantidfly is most closely related to Lacewings and Ant Lions (1)

Range

Wasp Mantidflies are found in the shaded states and provinces [2]
Wasp Mantidflies are found in the shaded states and provinces [2]

Part Mantis, Part Wasp, All Killer

The Wasp Mantidfly is a small insect with a wingspan of about an inch and a brown body with yellow bands that grows up to four centimetres in length. These markings mimic those of the venomous Paper Wasps (Polistes sp) in order to appear more dangerous to predators then it actually is. The Mantidfly is a deadly predator itself, using the large ‘raptorial limbs’ to catch and subdue smaller insects. In addition the adults also take nectar while waiting for a more substantial meal to come into range (2). Adult Mantidflies are short lived, usually appearing as adults in the summer months and mating somewhere between May and July.

[3]
[3]

While the adults are deadly predators in their own right, the larvae of the Wasp Mantidfly are even more devious. Upon hatching the larva drop to the floor and wait for a Wolf Spider or other hunting species to walk past, before quickly latching onto the arachnid where it remains unnoticed by its new host. In this stage the larvae is parasitic, feeding on enough of the spider’s blood to sustain itself without effecting the spider’s strength or speed. The larvaes goal is to eventually attach to a female spider, and will switch hosts if attached to the wrong gender while the spider’s mate or the female cannibalises the male (3).

Once attached to the spider the Mantidfly larvae waits until she starts to spin an egg sac, and will crawl inside before construction is complete. Once inside the Mantidfly consumes the spider’s eggs and newly hatched larvae, whilst receiving the protection of a spider silk cocoon. Once ready to pupate the Mantidfly spins a second layer of silk and undergoes metamorphosis, emerging as an adult around a year later.

Five Fun Wasp Mantidfly Facts

Hunting Spiders are not the only victims of Mantidfly larvae. Some species parasite Wasps, Bees and Beetles in addition to arachnids.

Some Mantidfly larvae prefer to stay inside the spider to reduce the chance of being knocked off as it moves. As such they slip inside the arachnids ‘book lung’ until it’s time for its host to mate

This behaviour isn't new. A recent fossilised piece of amber, aged around 44 million years, shows a Mantidfly larvae caught as it boarded a spider before both were entombed in tree sap (4)

[4]
[4]

The oldest fossilised Mantidfly (of which there are 10) dates back to the Jurassic Period

Mantidflies, like their relatives the Lacewings and Ant Lions, are very clumsy fliers

Bibliography

1 - www.arkive.org

2 - Cannings R.A., Cannings S.G. (2006) The Mantispidae (Insecta: Neuroptera) of Canada, with notes on morphology, ecology, and distribution

3 - http://thesmallermajority.com/2012/12/13/mantidflies/

4 - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/03/28/spider-boarding-insect-preserved-in-amber/#.VLOocdKsXE0

Picture References

1 - http://bogleech.com/nature/sitoid-mantidfly.jpg

2 - http://bugguide.net/maps/maps/4825.png

3 - http://www.michigannatureguy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Mantid-Fly.jpg

4 - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/files/2011/03/Mantidfly_amber_spider.jpg

Ouch poor spiders, still as we leave the Mantidfly behind we can rest knowing that after next week’s issue (which is full of sarcasm) we can get to the requests of @ostyo, @johnjo719 and an archived request from @laflux . Until then critic, comment, suggest a new species to cover and check out past issues using Impurest’s Bestiary.

Many Thanks

Impurest Cheese

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Cream_God

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Glad I don't have to sleep for another 16 hours

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#4  Edited By cattlebattle

The larvaes goal is to eventually attach to a female spider, and will switch hosts if attached to the wrong gender while the spider’s mate or the female cannibalises the male (3).

Once attached to the spider the Mantidfly larvae waits until she starts to spin an egg sac, and will crawl inside before construction is complete. Once inside the Mantidfly consumes the spider’s eggs and newly hatched larvae, whilst receiving the protection of a spider silk cocoon. Once ready to pupate the Mantidfly spins a second layer of silk and undergoes metamorphosis, emerging as an adult around a year later.

No Caption Provided

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ImpurestCheese

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@cgoodness: Yep I've been supplying nightmare fuel since 2014 with this blog

@cbishop: Thanks for the comment

@cattlebattle: Ah bless, glad I could be of service for the spread of Insomnia

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ImpurestCheese

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@cattlebattle: Ah okay, good to know that what I know about the natural world is still terrifying

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@impurestcheese: You just found my worst nightmare.. I hate bees, but I think you've found something entirely worst...

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Wolverine008

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@impurestcheese: Another interesting animal bio Impurest I'm not even much of a biology fan and you keep me interested each week :)

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@wolverine08: Thanks you, that is about the highest praise I can get from IGTA. Many Thanks for your comment :-D

@ccraft: Yep as mentioned above I bring nightmare fuel to the masses. Thanks for the comment though, next weeks animal is a lot grumpier but on the whole more likeable

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Straight-Fire

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I'm scared of these things. >_>

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ImpurestCheese

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@dboyrules2011: Fear is good, it's the primal force that keeps us alive. But fear of the adorable (and harmless to mankind) mantidfly, well something is wrong with your fight and flight response.

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Straight-Fire

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deactivated-097092725

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This almost makes me happy it's not summer where I am.

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ImpurestCheese

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@dboyrules2011: No stinger it isn't a wasp it's just masquerading as one

@Ms-Lola: Even in the summer there is never a great ammount of Mantidflies about, plus they are quite placid when handled and don't have a stinger

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ImpurestCheese

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@ms-lola: It's not a wasp it's a Mantidfly :-)

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#20  Edited By Straight-Fire
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@dboyrules2011: Good, should last till about Issue 52. Everyth5between now and then is middle of the road in terms of scariness

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ImpurestCheese

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Bump

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cbishop

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Adding to Fic-O-Pedia. It's not fan-fic, but it is cool. :)

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Saren

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@cbishop: Stop spamming the forum by bumping every edition of this series.

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cbishop

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@saren said:

@cbishop: Stop spamming the forum by bumping every edition of this series.

I'm not spamming the forum. I'm bumping them from Imp's blog, so I can get the forum links. If you know of another way I can see the page of the forum they are on, I'd be happy to know it. But really- am I interrupting the Count to 1 Million game and What Do You Think of the Avatar Above You threads that bad? I'm almost done.

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Saren

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@cbishop said:
@saren said:

@cbishop: Stop spamming the forum by bumping every edition of this series.

I'm not spamming the forum. I'm bumping them from Imp's blog, so I can get the forum links. If you know of another way I can see the page of the forum they are on, I'd be happy to know it. But really- am I interrupting the Count to 1 Million game and What Do You Think of the Avatar Above You threads that bad? I'm almost done.

When every single non-sticky link on this forum is this, then you are spamming the forum. You could simply swap out the relevant parts of the URL and add the number at the end of the link with a hyphen.

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Heatblaze

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@saren said:
@cbishop said:
@saren said:

@cbishop: Stop spamming the forum by bumping every edition of this series.

I'm not spamming the forum. I'm bumping them from Imp's blog, so I can get the forum links. If you know of another way I can see the page of the forum they are on, I'd be happy to know it. But really- am I interrupting the Count to 1 Million game and What Do You Think of the Avatar Above You threads that bad? I'm almost done.

When every single non-sticky link on this forum is this, then you are spamming the forum. You could simply swap out the relevant parts of the URL and add the number at the end of the link with a hyphen.

So it was him? I thought it was the OP doing this.

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cbishop

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#30  Edited By cbishop

@saren said:

When every single non-sticky link on this forum is this, then you are spamming the forum. You could simply swap out the relevant parts of the URL and add the number at the end of the link with a hyphen.

I wanted the link as it is displayed on the forum page. I've been done for like 10 minutes. Quit yer bellyachin'.

P.S. Because the animals are named after the issue number, the number-adding thing won't work. I did consider every option I could think of before bumping the issues.

@heatblaze123 said:

So it was him? I thought it was the OP doing this.

Nope. Just grabbing links. All done now.

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legacy6364

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#31  Edited By legacy6364

What the hell is with all these threads.

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cbishop

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What the hell is with all these threads.

I was grabbing forum links (had to bump them from the blogs). We now return you to your regularly scheduled "Write the story three words at a time" and religious argument threads.

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Heatblaze

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@legacy6364: @cbishop is bumping almost all of Impurest cheese's threads. It's everywhere now. Like seriously wtf.

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#34  Edited By cbishop

@heatblaze123: I have seriously been done for almost 30 minutes. But hey! There's a conspiracy theory about banks and a question as to whether Ad-Block is destroying America at the top now! Quick! Go read those fascinating diatribes! Sheesh...

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@cbishop said:
@saren said:

When every single non-sticky link on this forum is this, then you are spamming the forum. You could simply swap out the relevant parts of the URL and add the number at the end of the link with a hyphen.

I wanted the link as it is displayed on the forum page. I've been done for like 10 minutes. Quit yer bellyachin'.

P.S. Because the animals are named after the issue number, the number-adding thing won't work. I did consider every option I could think of before bumping the issues.

I'm not talking about the issue number, I'm talking about the number at the end of the URL; 1635327 in this thread's case. If you just swapped out the profile/impurestcheese/blog section with forums/off-topic-5/, you would get the link as it is displayed o the forum page.

It is incredibly irritating to see the entire forum swarmed with this stuff, and getting passive-aggressive over the content of other threads doesn't change that.

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cbishop

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@saren said:

I'm not talking about the issue number, I'm talking about the number at the end of the URL; 1635327 in this thread's case. If you just swapped out the profile/impurestcheese/blog section with forums/off-topic-5/, you would get the link as it is displayed o the forum page.

It is incredibly irritating to see the entire forum swarmed with this stuff, and getting passive-aggressive over the content of other threads doesn't change that.

Ooooo! Not "incredibly irritating!" Please! Anything but that! Again, I have now been done for over 35 minutes. Also... I didn't think my aggression was all that passive. I thought I was pretty outright about my disdain for most of the Off-Topic threads. Quit whining and move on. Another 30 minutes, and most of them will be off of the front page.

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Saren

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#38  Edited By Saren

@cbishop said:
@saren said:

I'm not talking about the issue number, I'm talking about the number at the end of the URL; 1635327 in this thread's case. If you just swapped out the profile/impurestcheese/blog section with forums/off-topic-5/, you would get the link as it is displayed o the forum page.

It is incredibly irritating to see the entire forum swarmed with this stuff, and getting passive-aggressive over the content of other threads doesn't change that.

Ooooo! Not "incredibly irritating!" Please! Anything but that! Again, I have now been done for over 35 minutes. Also... I didn't think my aggression was all that passive. I thought I was pretty outright about my disdain for most of the Off-Topic threads. Quit whining and move on. Another 30 minutes, and most of them will be off of the front page.

Inconveniencing other people for no reason other than your inability to figure out a smarter way is not solved by telling them to quit whining about your inability to figure out a smarter way. The next time you have one of these bright ideas, figure out something brighter, because spamming will get you banned.

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ImpurestCheese

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#39  Edited By ImpurestCheese

@saren: @cbishop:Sorry for any incoveniance caused, had no idea this was happening until I got back from work.

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cbishop

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@saren said:

Inconveniencing other people for no reason other than your inability to figure out a smarter way is not solved by telling them to quit whining about your inability to figure out a smarter way. The next time you have one of these bright ideas, figure out something brighter, because spamming will get you banned.

I'm getting really tired of talking to you. I've said at least twice previously that I wanted the link as it displayed on the forum page, which means I actually have to see it on the forum page. It's the Off-Topic forum for crying out loud, which let's be honest, is the Stuff-We-Don't-Care-To-See-Anywhere-Else-On-The-Site Forum. I really don't care about your inconvenience, and I have been done for over an hour now. Get over yourself.

Sorry for any incoveniance caused, had no idea this was happening until I got back from work.

Been done for awhile Imp'.

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Heatblaze

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@saren: Wow...This guy is showing so much disrespect I'm surprise you didn't ban him.

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#42  Edited By Jezer

@cbishop said:
@saren said:

I'm not talking about the issue number, I'm talking about the number at the end of the URL; 1635327 in this thread's case. If you just swapped out the profile/impurestcheese/blog section with forums/off-topic-5/, you would get the link as it is displayed o the forum page.

It is incredibly irritating to see the entire forum swarmed with this stuff, and getting passive-aggressive over the content of other threads doesn't change that.

Ooooo! Not "incredibly irritating!" Please! Anything but that! Again, I have now been done for over 35 minutes. Also... I didn't think my aggression was all that passive. I thought I was pretty outright about my disdain for most of the Off-Topic threads. Quit whining and move on. Another 30 minutes, and most of them will be off of the front page.

Regardless of how much you look down on the other threads, try not to ignore the fact that there was a more intelligent and efficient way for you to go about this. Seriously. Take a second and stop and think about this before your fire off another "ive been done!" "these threads are more important" holier-than-thou reply.

Your personal opinion that the quality of these threads make them more deserving of a spot at the top of the forum, or the quality of the other threads make them unimportant in comparison to your endeavor, is meaningless when you focus that this controversy ultimately stems from you choosing not to use your internet forum common sense to find the easiest way to go about this....lol

@mods: Sorry mods, couldn't resist throwing a jab in....

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Saren

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@cbishop said:
@saren said:

Inconveniencing other people for no reason other than your inability to figure out a smarter way is not solved by telling them to quit whining about your inability to figure out a smarter way. The next time you have one of these bright ideas, figure out something brighter, because spamming will get you banned.

I'm getting really tired of talking to you. I've said at least twice previously that I wanted the link as it displayed on the forum page, which means I actually have to see it on the forum page. It's the Off-Topic forum for crying out loud, which let's be honest, is the Stuff-We-Don't-Care-To-See-Anywhere-Else-On-The-Site Forum. I really don't care about your inconvenience, and I have been done for over an hour now. Get over yourself.

Oh I'm sorry, have you been done for an hour now? Is the forum still not flooded with these pages? What I told you is a way to get the link as it displays on the forum page. You do not have to see it on the forum page any more than once for one of these threads to understand the format and pattern behind swapping out the URL's. If you're tired of talking to me, stop talking to me. Meanwhile, spamming will get you banned the next time this happens.

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Saren

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@saren: Wow...This guy is showing so much disrespect I'm surprise you didn't ban him.

I don't care about disrespect, there's nothing respectable about moderating a comic book site.

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cbishop

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@jezer: I considered multiple ways of doing this, and frankly, bumping seemed like the best solution. I really didn't mean to imply that these threads are more important than the other threads in the forum - more important to me at the moment, obviously - but just... who cares? The Off-Topic is almost 1,100 pages long and moves pretty quickly. These bumps will seriously be a memory in almost no time. I "inconvenienced others" by bumping them? Seriously? Well, I went and made comments (real comments, not just bumps!) on a bunch of non-Imp' threads to help move things along. You kids have fun now.

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@cbishop: I have never agreed with anyone more about anything in my entire life refering to the threads on Off Topic.

You said it man

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cbishop

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@saren said:

Oh I'm sorry, have you been done for an hour now? Is the forum still not flooded with these pages? What I told you is a way to get the link as it displays on the forum page. You do not have to see it on the forum page any more than once for one of these threads to understand the format and pattern behind swapping out the URL's. If you're tired of talking to me, stop talking to me. Meanwhile, spamming will get you banned the next time this happens.

So I grouped threads together that were already in the forum- this is an issue? I needed to see how they displayed on the page, because I wanted to copy/paste this:

Impurest's Guide to Animals #48 - Wasp Mantidlfy

instead of this:

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/off-topic-5/impurest-s-guide-to-animals-48-wasp-mantidlfy-1635327/#45

They'll be off the front page in no time (with the exception of this one, which we keep bumping with responses).

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rocketraccoonthingy

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Have you done a blog on dogs already? XD

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Saren

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@cbishop: So type "Impurest's Guide to Animals #48 - Wasp Mantidfly" or just copy-paste the title of the thread into the "Text to Display" field that appears when you click on the Link button in the text editor.

Yes, this is an issue. It is called spamming. This is not difficult.

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cbishop

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@saren: This was easier. And faster, which is why I've been done for over an hour now. I still don't see this as spamming- the threads were already in the forum. I've commented on about 20 or 25 others since I finished with these, and nobody's griping about seeing my name on all of those threads now. Sorry to break up the flow of different avatars- the same-avatar-flood is receding nicely. The griping here is seriously ridiculous. I'm done with this and participating in other threads now. In just a few minutes, I'll have no reason to look at this For-People-Who-Don't -Know-That-A-Site-About-Comics-Is-For-Discussing-Comics Forum again until Imp' posts a new thread. Until then, you have a sunshiny day.