Wasp mantidfly
The wasp mantidfly looks like a wasp, but it is only pretending. It has front legs that grab like a praying mantis and see-through wings with thick brown edges. Its stripes copy the colours of the paper wasps that live near it.
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Fun facts
When something bothers it, it curls its tail under its body like a wasp getting ready to sting. It is all a trick.
The baby is so tiny that it hitches a ride on a wolf spider. It waves its body in the air until a spider walks by.
When the mother spider builds her egg sac, the larva sneaks inside and feeds on the eggs.
To impress a female, the male lifts and spreads his wings again and again and stretches out his grabbing legs.
Because it visits flowers for nectar, it helps carry a little pollen from flower to flower.
Most asked questions about Wasp mantidfly
?Is the wasp mantidfly a wasp?
No. It is a net-winged insect that only looks and acts like a wasp, and it cannot sting.
?What does a wasp mantidfly eat?
Adults catch small insects on flowers and drink nectar. Larvae eat spider eggs.
?How big is a wasp mantidfly?
Its body is about 2 to 3 centimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Climaciella brunnea
- Group
- Other insects
- Family
- Mantispidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Neuroptera > Mantispidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Western mantidfly, Brown mantidfly
Where the facts come from
- Climaciella brunnea (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Ilona Loser. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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