Mantis! It's actually a praying mantis! Shi Yueying and I glanced at each other, and suddenly felt that everything was understood.

The jagged cracks on the wooden floor on the second floor, the scars on the two corpses, and the cuts in the metal brackets on the shop sign were all caused by the pair of sharp forelimbs of the praying mantis.

I don't know if it was because the 'woman' didn't shout out the promise at the time, so the punishment of the promise pool was slightly delayed, or for other reasons. But these are not the most important things, the important thing is that the 'women' are still in danger, and the danger is getting closer and closer. I'm afraid that the praying mantis has almost materialized, and I'm afraid that when it is completely materialized, it will go into the hiding place of the 'woman' and kill her!

No! She may be the only one in danger. And Niu Niu. As the subject of commitment, she will definitely be eaten by the praying mantis in the end. I almost forgot that she was actually the first person to see a praying mantis. Ever since she had become abnormal three months ago, I am afraid that she could already see that faint green 'color' shadow.

It's just that she has always regarded that shadow as a good friend in her imagination. She had been playing with the praying mantis, and had given the mantis a name that was constantly materializing and becoming clearer and clearer—Ice Cream.

'Niu Niu likes to eat ice cream, and ice cream wants to eat Niu Niu too. What kind of message does this sentence convey? The latter sentence is a little easier to explain, the praying mantis wants to eat her. But why does she like to eat praying mantises? As far as I know, the Shi family hasn't given her ice cream for a long time.

I don't understand, but the 'women' must protect them! According to the dream of the 'woman' at the time, the mantis of the xt e-book must appear every night, and after it is completely materialized, it may come to this villa tonight to hunt. Although there is no way yet, who knows if the embodied praying mantis will have the habits of the praying mantis of this world? Looks like you're a little more prepared!

I sat up from the couch: "Yueying, go out with me to buy something." Shi 'female', you and Niuniu stay in the room, don't go out of the 'door' for a single step, wait for us to come back! By the way, by the way, all the servants will be given a week's leave. This villa must be vacated tonight! ”

Hopefully, I can get through this night safely. When this is over, I will be able to 'pull' my hands and find my lost memories!

"The praying mantis belongs to the insect class winged subclass Mantis family and is a medium to large insect with a triangular head and a free movement. The 'leg' and tibial joints of the forefoot have sharp spines, and the tibial joints are sickle-shaped, often folding towards the 'leg' joints, forming the forefoot that can capture prey. Forewing cortex, overwing, lacking anterior margin domain, hindwing membranous, 'hip' domain developed, fan-shaped, stacked on the back at rest. The abdomen is 'fat'.

In addition to the extremely cold zone, it is widely distributed all over the world, especially in the tropics. There are about 1,585 known species in the world. About 51 species are known in China. Among them, the Southern Great Knife Mantis, the Northern Great Knife Mantis, the Broad Axe Mantis, the Chinese Great Knife Mantis, the European Praying Mantis, and the Green Spotted Small Mantis are important natural enemies of pests of Chinese agriculture, forestry, fruit trees and ornamental plants.

The body of the praying mantis is elongated, mostly green, but there are also brown or flower-spotted species. Compound eyes are prominent, with 3 single eyes. Chewing mouthparts with a strong palate. The forefoot captures the foot, and the middle and hind feet are suitable for walking. Gradient metamorphosis. The eggs are laid in the egg sheath, and there are 20~40 eggs for every 1 egg sheath, arranged in 2~4 rows. Each female can lay 4~5 egg sheaths, which are hardened by foamy secretions, mostly adhering to branches, bark, walls and other objects. The nymphs that hatch at the beginning are "pre-nymphs" and become adults after 3~12 times of shedding. Generally, there is one generation per year, and some species are parthenogenetic 'breeding'.

"Meat" eats "sex", hunts all kinds of insects and small animals, and can eliminate many pests in fields and forest areas, so it is a beneficial insect. 'Sex' is brutal and aggressive, and there is often a phenomenon of eating too much and eating males when they lack food. Some species found in South America can also occasionally attack small animals such as birds, lizards or frogs. Praying mantis has protective 'color', and some have mimicry, similar to their environment, so as to prey on a variety of pests. ”

Along the way, Shi Yueying bought a lot of mantis materials, reading them as she walked, and I was annoyed to listen to them.

"Little Kiki, do you know that a female 'sex' praying mantis will actually eat her husband." She watched the fuss. God, this is the basic common sense of the world.

"You see, in 1984, two scientists, Riske and Davis, were in the laboratory observing the tail of the big knife mantis, and they made some improvements: they fed the mantis beforehand, dimmed the lights, and let the mantis enjoy itself, and people were not watching from the sidelines, but using a video camera to record.

The result was unexpected: out of thirty 'mating' matches, none of them had a husband-eater. Instead, for the first time, they recorded the mantis's intricate courtship ritual: the male and female danced for as little as 10 minutes and as long as two hours.

Riske and Davis believe that one of the reasons why praying mantis eaters have been frequently observed in the laboratory in the past is that under the conditions of direct observation, the mantis that has lost its "**" has no chance to hold a courtship ceremony, and this ritual can eliminate the malice of the female mantis, which is necessary for the male mantis to successfully 'mate'. Another reason is that the praying mantis fed in the laboratory is often in a state of hunger, and the female praying mantis is hungry and treats her husband as a delicacy. To prove this, Riske and Davis conducted a series of experiments in 1987. They found that the female praying mantis, who had been starved for 5 to 11 days, pounced on the male as soon as they saw it, and had no intention of 'copulating' it. Female praying mantis will 'coppulate' during or after 'copulation' in a state of moderate starvation, but will try to eat their mates during or after 'copulation'. And the female praying mantis, which is not hungry, does not want to eat mates. It can be seen that the main motivation of female mantis eaters is because they are hungry. But in the wild, not all female praying mantis can eat their stomachs, so it is still possible to eat husbands. In 1992,. Laence) conducted the first large-scale field study in Portugal on the 'mating' behaviour of the European praying mantis. About 31% of the mantis tail 'copulation' that he observed occurred husband-eating behavior.

In the wild, female praying mantis is probably moderately hungry. Eating a male mantis is indeed beneficial to the mantis' offspring. A 1988 study showed that female praying mantis that ate their mates had 20 percent more offspring than those who didn't. Riske and Davis also admit that the husband-eating phenomenon that occurs in European mantis may be far more common than other praying mantises, and that it is they who bring notoriety to the mantis. However, it is clear that the male praying mantis is not eaten willingly.

And there are many more. About two years ago, an advanced textbook entitled "Sex and Death: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Biology" was published in the United States. This book introduces and discusses very specialized biological and philosophical issues such as "evolution" and "genes", which have nothing to do with "sex" and death. The author says that the biological world is wonderful and eccentric, at least more bizarre than we can imagine. In fact, the author can say more clearly: because 'sex' and death are the eternal themes of the biological world, just as love and death are the eternal themes of literature.

Creatures without 'sex' can survive forever by constantly dividing, but creatures with 'sex' will surely die. 'Sex' is the resistance to death, the beginning of a new life. These two opposing forces can sometimes be strangely combined. For example, in arachnidas and insects, it is sometimes observed that the so-called "sexual" eats the male with which the tail is 'mated', that is, before and after the tail and even during the tail of the 'coputu'. The most famous example is of course the praying mantis.

The first description of a female praying mantis killing her husband appeared in a German work published in 1658. In 1886, an American entomologist reported to Science that he had seen in the laboratory a strange situation in which a female mantis ate the head of a male mantis before 'mating', while the headless male still managed to 'mate', probably the first scientific literature on this phenomenon. Later, Fabre also described the killing of the praying mantis in "Insects".

In fact, however, the praying mantis even has the habit of eating its husband. That's amazing! When eating her husband, the female 'sex' praying mantis will bite her husband's head and neck and eat it bite by bite. In the end, all that remained was her husband's two thin wings. It's unbelievable. From this description, we don't know whether Fabre saw it with his own eyes or if he was merely relaying an accepted fact. In any case, as "Insects" swept the world, the notorious reputation of the female mantis as 'killing her husband' or rather, 'eating her husband' and the reputation of the male mantis as 'martyrdom' became known. Biologists have even tried to argue for the rational 'sexuality' of "cannibalism".

Some say that female praying mantis requires a lot of energy to lay eggs, and the 'meat' of male praying mantis is an excellent source of energy. The severed male mantis can complete the 'mating', which has been experimentally confirmed, because the nerves that control the 'copulation' are not in the head, but in the abdomen, and because some of the nerve inhibitory centers are located in the head, eating the head can also help to enhance the 'sexual' ability of the male's 'sex'. The male praying mantis does not die, which is really intolerable.

Wow, I didn't expect there to be so much knowledge in it! If that praying mantis is a mother, all you need to do is put a lot of male mantises, and she will run around and eat it, forgetting about my sister. ”

This young lady, please don't be amazed, and occasionally worry more about the 'sexual' life of your sister and niece! I smiled wryly and shook my head.

"By the way, little Kiki, where are we going?" "Can you not have little Kiki, little Kiki's call? Sick of it! I frowned. No, you can't remember your name. Shi Yueying shook her head and smiled. But from her mischievous smile, a trace of worry can be clearly captured.