Madagascar. Amateur photos

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09.01.2014 13:09, adderley

More about praying mantises and Madagascar:

"My research instinct, as well as my self - defense instinct, is increasingly pushing me towards the fearsome mantis insects. Bogdan Kretschmer brings them out of the forest alive, and the boys carry them too.
A large praying mantis, thysma, climbed up on my arm. I move the finger of my other hand around it, and it turns its head to follow my finger; the mantis is the only insect with a movable neck. More than once, he threw his predatory paws up and grabbed my finger. The grip is so strong that it is impossible to get rid of the predator, except to tear it to pieces. The grip is not on the stomach, but on death. For some time, a small insect holds an adult captive with some kind of magical power. I finally manage to free my finger. Drops of blood spray from the thorn-punctured areas. I lick up the blood and feel broken. It was as if the hostile spirit of the valley had wounded me.

I want to find out how far the mantis predation will go, and I put them in small boxes. I also let in spiders, bears, and grasshoppers to eat there. None of them can cope with mantises, and it's interesting: venomous spiders, even large specimens, die like flies. The praying mantis fights in a confined space like a wolverine besieged by dogs; it lies on its side and continuously throws out all six long legs. Getting through such a barrier is unthinkable. But it is very convenient for him, after an extremely short struggle, to hook the spider's front legs with spikes - and the victim is finished.

Bears in the Ambinanitelo valley are large, thick, and armed with huge claws for tireless work in the ground. With those claws, they could tear any mantis to shreds if they knew about it. Alas, they don't know. Everyone dies. Evil sometimes takes over when you see how a huge but peaceful bear is defeated by the organized predation of a praying mantis. The bears, gripped by the mantis ' steel pincers, dangle their heavy claws in the air in a funny way. And it always ends with the death of the victim.

And so, when you compare rough bears with a praying mantis, you notice an amazing phenomenon-mantises are ridiculously beautiful. Very good females, males-much worse. They're also cowards. I can't help but admire mantises. Nothing to be done: adoration of beauty. Long, slender legs, an elegant torso, open wings resemble the lace of a ballerina. But the most remarkable thing is the movements: proud, refined, almost theatrical. All of this caught my eye once, and I'm surprised to see that my initial impression of horror disappears and I look at them in a different way: mantises-female Amazons. Heartless but gorgeous; cruel but charming; bloodthirsty but attractive.
The most interesting fights take place among the praying mantises. They never end in a draw, the result is always the same: the victory of one and the death of the other. The rules of a fierce battle are unusual and strictly enforced. This is literally a competition. Wrestlers do not bite, but try to grab each other. The winner is the one who first grabs the head or neck of the opponent with his front paws. The one caught in the embrace loses its strength, and the winner devours it alive.

When the fight is between mantises of equal size, it is difficult to predict who will win; chance decides. But if only one is a little more-the fight becomes unequal. The advantage is always on the side of the bigger one, and the bigger one always wins. There are no exceptions, there are no accidents. The tisma is the largest of all the mantises in Ambinanitelo. It dominates at the top of the predatory hierarchy, holds the primacy of cruelty, and always devours other mantises. Always? I watched them for a long time and discovered an amazing feature that controls the horror world. It turns out that the victorious predator must die on its own. Even more: he must die precisely because he has become a winner. For several days now, I've been watching the insects, forgetting about the village and everything else in the world. I investigate, check, and don't believe myself. But how can you not believe the experiments? And all of them accurately prove that even in this inferno of predatory instincts, there is a pattern. Mantises have a special property: after defeating an enemy, they must devour it whole, without a trace. This biological, despotic violence later turns out to be disastrous for them.

Here comes the battle. A powerful yew tree with reddish wings fights a smaller, green-colored mantis. Green's fate is sealed. After a short reconnaissance, tisma tightly wraps her arms around the neck of her opponent and, ignoring the sudden movements of her paws, deals with him. Devours, as usual, everything in turn: the head, torso, abdomen. He does it quickly, viciously, as if the fight is still going on. No amount of force can stop the praying mantis until all that remains of the victim is horns and legs.

The mantis is cruel, but even more cruel is the law that forces you to swallow your prey in one go. The unfortunate triumphant is unable to interrupt the meal, he gorges himself to the brim, becomes terribly bloated and, exhausted, falls. I let another mantis, a green one, into the box. Green is afraid of the red monster. But now the monster behaves strangely: it does not attack, does not defend itself, and even more-it is motionless. The green one became bolder, rushed into battle and defeated the red one. Tysma, an invincible bogeyman a few minutes ago, dies in disgrace. It is also being devoured to ashes. This is how predatory yews die, victims of their own gluttony.

I was looking for mantis laws that would help me better recognize the winding paths of life in Ambinanitelo, and I realized the great law of nature, bold, amazing, joyful and inspiring with the greatest hope: the cruel predator must die!"

Arkady Fiedler. "Hot village Ambinanitelo"

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10.01.2014 12:31, Penzyak

If you are talking about the author of the book, then I already wrote that this is Arkady Fiedler. He was on the Island in the 30s of the last century. The book was written in 1937.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkady_Fiedler

But thanks for the tip, I'll definitely look for this job:

Olsoufieff, G. 1934. Les Cicindélides de Madagascar, Première partie, Essai de révision systématique et biologie. Memoires d l’Academie Malgache 20: 31-76 + 3 pls.

Olsufyev also had other works on Madagascar:

Olsoufieff G. 1932
Contribution à l'étude des Cétonides Malgaches (3e Note)
Bulletin de l'Academie Malgache. Tananarive 15:121-126

Olsoufieff G. 1935
Note critique sur l'Essai d'une Phylogenie des Lamellicornes Coprophages
Entomologische Nachrichtenblatt 9:32-35

Olsoufieff G. 1940
Contribution à l'étude des Cétonides Malgaches(Note IV)
Bulletin de l'Academie Malgache. Tananarive 23:75-78

Olsoufieff G. 1947
Les Epilissiens de Madagascar
Bulletin de l'Académie malgache. Tananarive (1944-1945) 26:169-174

Walter William Horn, Gregoir Olsoufieff, Walter Horn. 1934.
Les cicindélides de Madagascar. 1ère partie, Catalogue bibliographiques et synonymique / 2ème partie, Essai de révision systématique et biologie par Grégoire Olsoufieff.
Antananarivo. Academie malgache, 1934

At their university (museum - Department of Nature??) there should be at least some data about him...? You need a photo, biography and a list of works... memories of him??

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