Mantidfly (Matispa styriaca) also known as Styrian praying lacewing. Photographed at Podere Montecucco, Orvieto 05018 Italy, August 2020.
The adult insect is a yellow-brown color with transparent wings that have a wingspan of 35 mm (1.4 in). The species can be found in southern and central Europe. Its forelegs are similar to those of the praying mantis, with the ability to seize living prey.
The larval life-cycle has a number of distant stages: the larva emerges from reddish eggs after 21 days and then hibernates through the winter. In the spring, the larva searches for a female wolf or fishing spider, of the genera Lycosa and Dolomedes, and bores its way into the cocoon that the spider carries on its abdomen, by biting a slit open.
In its first stage, it is carnivorous as shown by dead spiders being found around it. Before the larva moults, it resembles a bristle-tail (dipluran) then after the first moult, the species has short legs that it cannot use, a small head, jaws that extend straight out, and pointed antennae that extend beyond the jaws.
Once the larva starts metamorphosis, it pupates by spinning a cocoon inside the spider's egg sac, in which it stays up to 14 days before its final moulting Pupation happens in the middle of June.
It is a nymph after emerging from the cocoon, not yet in its adult form.[Once it enters the adult stage, the species hunt for prey by using fast strikes of their forelegs that can take less than 60 ms similar to the praying mantis.
The adult insect is a yellow-brown color with transparent wings that have a wingspan of 35 mm (1.4 in). The species can be found in southern and central Europe. Its forelegs are similar to those of the praying mantis, with the ability to seize living prey.
The larval life-cycle has a number of distant stages: the larva emerges from reddish eggs after 21 days and then hibernates through the winter. In the spring, the larva searches for a female wolf or fishing spider, of the genera Lycosa and Dolomedes, and bores its way into the cocoon that the spider carries on its abdomen, by biting a slit open.
In its first stage, it is carnivorous as shown by dead spiders being found around it. Before the larva moults, it resembles a bristle-tail (dipluran) then after the first moult, the species has short legs that it cannot use, a small head, jaws that extend straight out, and pointed antennae that extend beyond the jaws.
Once the larva starts metamorphosis, it pupates by spinning a cocoon inside the spider's egg sac, in which it stays up to 14 days before its final moulting Pupation happens in the middle of June.
It is a nymph after emerging from the cocoon, not yet in its adult form.[Once it enters the adult stage, the species hunt for prey by using fast strikes of their forelegs that can take less than 60 ms similar to the praying mantis.
Also in: Ten Metres from Home 1. (2020)
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