Biology and Life Cycle of the Praying Mantid Hierodula tenuidentata Saussure, 1869 (Insecta: Mantodea)

The praying mantis genus Hierodula is widespread throughout temperate and tropical Asia, and its species are well recognised due to their large size. Nevertheless, the life history of many of its species remains unknown. Therefore, we investigate the biology, life cycle, mating, cannibalism, and spermatophore feeding of the species Hierodula tenuidentata . The mean incubation period of five field-collected oothecae was 36.4 days (± 0.5 SD) and thus very similar to oothecae laid in the laboratory (35.1 days ± 3.0 SD). The mean number of nymphs hatching from the field-collected oothecae was 22.0 (± 3.1 SD), while this number was considerably higher for the oothecae laid in the laboratory (97.1 ± 11.0 SD). The time needed from hatching to imago was about 89.1 days (± 0.7) and included nine moults for males and ten moults for females. The mean life span of females (93.3 days ± 5.3 SD) was longer than of males (48.6 ± 4.7 SD). We observed spermatophore feeding by the female at the end of mating; sexual cannibalism occurred during copulation.