Hornets and Praying Mantis in France

I’ve been doing some research into wildlife of France, and it seems that I have been both misled and misleading for the last few years. So here and now I plan to put that right by dispelling two of the great myths of the 20th century.

First I have to apologise in advance, because one of the myths I am going to debunk is one that you too have probably believed since you were in 2nd grade biology class.First the easy one. Hornet stings do not kill you. (Unless you have an allergy to wasp and hornet stings.) Since coming to France and being surrounded regularly by hornets, i have often heard the story that six hornet stings is fatal. Often I have been told that just three stings can be fatal. I have related this untruth to all number of people.

In fact, it takes literally hundreds or thousands of hornet stings to kill an adult. Even if called upon to deal with a hornet nest – which can lead to dozens of angry hornets attacking at the same time, if you approach within a metre or so of a hornet nest – the number of hornets that attack is insufficient to kill you.

So from now on we’ll say no more about the terrible dangers of grabbing a fig from the fig tree, becauseit might be concealing a couple of hornets.

Second, the praying mantis. We get these in France, a variety called the European mantis that reaches about 8cm long. Colourful and attractive to see.

Ah yes, but we all know very well that the female praying mantis eats the male during the mating process. Everyone knows that. Or do they? It is, in fact, not true.

Under the stress of laboratory lighting, with a few scientists peering on and a lack of food that is exactly what sometimes happens. But someone had the bright idea of dimming the lights and leaving the room, with the camera running. Guess what? An attractive little mating ritual, and both mantis then went quietly their own ways.

The fact is, in normal conditions Praying Mantis females DO NOT eat their partners.

That’s not quite the end of the matter though, as I found out. In some countries Praying Mantis grow to 25cm long. They then conceal themselves in trees and are big and strong enough to grab, kill and eat a small bird. Now that is scary.

So all those years where we’ve been panicking about hornets and admiring the Praying Mantis, we’ve had our priorities completely wrong.

Coming next week (perhaps), the next of my revelations – ‘wolves are your friends’, and ‘lizards spread bird flu’. Meanwhile look at some of the photos I’ve tracked down, in the wildlife section at Wildlife of France.