Micro-Season: “The Praying Mantis Hatches” (2023)

We have entered the micro-season of “The Praying Mantis Hatches”.  This is the first micro-season of the season of Grain in Ear.  The other micro-seasons within Grain in Ear are:

• The Praying Mantis Hatches (Jun 5 – Jun 9)
• Fireflies Rise from the Rotten Grass (Jun 10 -Jun 15)
• The Plums Turn Yellow (Jue 16- Jun 20)

The micro-seasons were established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai. While they are specific to Japan, they can be helpful to people all over the world. No matter where you live, you can use these seasons as a starting point for your own exploration of the natural world.

To celebrate this season we will learn about the Praying Mantis and then read haiku by Basho, Issa, Takarai Kikaku, Kerouac, and others.

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The Praying Mantis

The European Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) is the species that is most often associated with the term Praying Mantis.  However, people often use the name “Praying Mantis” to describe any insects within the scientific order Mantodea.^(1,2) 

There are around 2500 species of insect in the order Mantodea.  These insects live on all the continents of the world except Antarctica.   The mantises, which are part of the family Mantidae (also known as Mantids) all have similar features which include elongated bodies, triangular heads, bulging eyes, and forelegs that are adapted for catching and gripping prey. 

Mantises are carnivorous insects.  Their diet usually consists of other insects, but will sometimes include lizards, frogs, and fish.  National Geographic provides us with this great description of a mantis hunt.

“Mantids may stalk or ambush prey, waiting silently then launching a sudden, individually calculated attack on their quarry that takes only milliseconds. Springing forward, they grasp their victim with those forelegs, called raptorial legs. The second and third sections of these limbs have interlocking spines, like a claw clip for your hair, making escape impossible.”⁽²⁾

The Life Cycle of the Praying Mantis

Mantises usually mate in Autumn.  The females will lay eggs on plants in a foamy secretion that is called an ootheca.  This foamy secretion will harden and the eggs will remain in this “nursery” throughout the winter.  In spring, the eggs will hatch and release hundreds of nymphs. The nymphs look a lot like the adult mantises only smaller and wingless.⁽⁴⁾ These nymphs will go through several molts before maturing into breeding adults. 

Praying Mantises’ mating behavior has been studied extensively by scientists because they engage in sexual cannibalism.  It is estimated that 30% of male mantises become a meal for the female mantis during the mating process. Scientists suspect the females eat the males because they provide a convenient, high-quality, protein source that is necessary for egg production.⁽⁴⁾

Fun Facts About Mantises

Below are a few other fun facts about mantises from Berkley.edu and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

• Mantis can see in 3D
• Mantids are the only insect that can turn their heads from side to side.
• Female mantises are larger than male mantises
• A mantis’s color often matches their surroundings
• Mantis nymphs are cannibalistic and they will eat each other if confined together

Seasonal Haiku

According to the World Kigo Database, “Praying Mantis” is primarily an Autuumn kigo.  Yet, “Mantis is born” (tooroo umaru) and “baby mantis” (kokamakiri) are mid summer kigo.   

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words as selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto, “ants” are included as summer insect kigo. In Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku, she also lists “ants” and then includes “ticks” and “fleas” as crawling insects that are also summer kigo. 

Now with all these crawling insects in mind, let’s read some haiku.

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Basho

fleas and lice
now a horse pisses
by my pillow 
(translated by Jane Reichhold) 

Takarai Kikaku

That dream I had
of being stabbed –was for real!
bitten by a flea 
(translated by Steven D. Carter)

Anonymous

Zen priest
his meditation finished
he looks for fleas

Jack Kerouac

Hummingbirds hum
  hello–bugs
Race and swoop

“Bugs” are listed as a summer kigo in Jane Reichhold A Dictionary of Haiku

Two ants hurry
   to catch up
With lonely Joe

Issa

a praying mantis
to the base of Mount Fuji
clings
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

the praying mantis
hangs by one hand...
temple bell 
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

the praying mantis's
shy expression...
wild roses 
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

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Haiku Invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu that references crawling insects. 

Share your haiku in the comments below, or post on your own page and link back to this post. I can’t wait to read what you write!  

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Resources

1. “Mantis”; Wikipedia
2. “Praying Mantis”; National Geographic
3. “Wondrous Facts About Praying Mantises”; Treehugger.com
4. Dugas, Katherine; Mantids. Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
5. “Mantodea”; Berkeley.edu
6. “Praying Mantis”; World Kigo Database

Basho’s haiku was retrieved from Matsuo Bashō’s haiku poems in romanized Japanese with English translations. Issa’s haiku was retrieved from David G. Lanoue’s HaikuGuy.com. Takarai Kikaku’s haiku was retrieved by The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology, edited by Faubion Bowers. Buson, Shokyu-ni. Kerouac’s haiku were retrieved from Kerouac’s Book of Haikus.  Anonymous haiku was retrieved from Bruce Ross’s Writing Haiku