Manticora (beetle)
| Manticora tiger beetle | |
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| male Manticora scabra | |
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| Genus: | Manticora Fabricius, 1781
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Manticora (often misspelled Mantichora following an unjustified spelling change in 1837) is a well-known genus of tiger beetle that is endemic to Africa. Its members are the largest of the subfamily, and may be the largest predatory insects in the world, so are accordingly highly prized among beetle collectors. All species are darkly colored, nocturnal, and flightless. Males usually have exaggerated mandibles compared to the females, used for clasping during copulation.
The species include:
- Manticora congoensis Peringuey, 1888
- Manticora gruti Bouchard, 1892
- Manticora holubi Mareš, 2002
- Manticora horni Kolbe 1897
- Manticora imperator Mareš, 1976
- Manticora jouberti
- Manticora latipennis Waterhouse, 1837
- Manticora livingstoni Laporte de Castelnau, 1863
- Manticora mygaloides Thomson, 1859
- Manticora scabra Klug, 1849
- Manticora sicheli Thomson, 1859
- Manticora skrabali Mareš, 2000
- Manticora tuberculata Geer, 1778
Manticoras in folklore and popular culture
In African folklore manticoras are evil creatures, often accused of being responsible for many bad things. According to legend they are doombringers. Some tribes even personify Death as a manticora whose mandibles are an equivalent to the European scythe of Death (Mareš, Lapáček, 1980).
In Jules Verne´s novel Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen, it is a Manticora beetle which helps Cousin Bénédict to escape from imprisonment, when the aforementioned, unguarded in a garden, follows the beetle. Since the beetle escapes from him by flying, it is possible that it is one of Verne's "scholar's jokes" (that is, a joke which only a scientist may recognize; see the entry Jules Verne) (Neff, 1978).
References and external links
- [1] (Beetles of Africa)
- [2] (BioLib, Biological Library, a link to a page upon the Manticora genus
- Ing Jaroslav Mareš, Vlastimil Lapáček, Nejkrásnější brouci tropů (The most beautiful tropical beetles), Prague, (1980)
- Ondřej Neff, Podivuhodný svět Julese Vernea (The Extraordinary World of Jules Verne), Prague, (1978)
