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This
truly bizarre looking creature has the scientific
name Gongylus gongylodes and is commonly known
either as
either the WANDERING VIOLIN
MANTIS or INDIAN
ROSE MANTIS. It originates in southern
India and Sri Lanka and is one of the most unusual
looking species of praying mantis in the world, as
well as being my favourite species! This is a
mature female:


You can
see from the picture above where the species gets
one of its common names from because, if you ignore
its legs, it certainly does have an overall body
shape resembling a violin!



As you
can see the species has some very unusual features
including leaf-like projections on its legs and an
elaborate crest on its head, but probably the
strangest feature of all about their bodies has to be the
exceptionally long 'neck', or thorax as it is
correctly named, which looks like it is far too thin and
weak to support the rest of its body as you can see
in these pictures of some of the smaller nymphs of
this species below!


Despite this feature this is a
very tough and strong animal which, like all
species of praying mantis, has a surprisingly
powerful pair of front legs for catching their prey.
These legs are always much more robust and sturdy
than the middle and rear legs as can be seen below:

They use the very sharp spines on these
legs to catch their food, which in the case of this
species consists mainly of flying insects. Once captured the legs close
very tightly around their prey and all the
spines prevent the insects from having any chance of
escape! This is one of my absolute favourite species of
insect in the world and it is fantastic both to be
keeping them again and to be able to watch their interesting
behaviours.


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