My old hillbilly girlfriend posted on Facebook that she'd just found a baby (or teenage?) Praying Mantis on our screen door. In the desert! Brought out by the desert summer thunderstorm that looms over Joshua Tree Park and threatens to come this away?
Several of her friends suggested that praying mantis were good luck and one young man recounted, "I once had one as a pet when I was a kid, he was always around for years it seems. He even went on a road trip to the beach in Texas once. I fed him cheese and hamburger. Very smart & attentive."
He was probably not a he, since female praying mantises feed on the male after sex to nourish her body throughout the period of creating a cocoon.
According to scientists most male stagmomantis Californica will mate with many females during the rutting season, but avoid the hungry females, for the most dangerous moment of the hours-long intercourse for the male is during the dismount. Stronger males are able to fight off the famished female. Weaker males are fair game for the females, who eat the male's head.
This decapitation doesn't end the sex, since male stagmomantis Californica have sensors at its tail that allow it to function without a head.
In other words praying mantis might be good luck, but not to the male of the species, who must have some homosexual tendencies in order to survive the depredation of the female.
To view Pete the Gay mantis, please go to the following URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb18OpVZjE8
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