Students lobby to dethrone Connecticut’s state insect, the voraciously predatory praying mantis

HARTFORD, Conn.– When it comes to state insects, most states honor beloved and benign insects, such as butterflies, honeybees and ladybugs. Connecticut has designated a voracious predator as its proudest insect for decades, but its reign could soon come to an end.

The European “praying mantis,” recognizable by its predatory forelimbs and known for catching and eating the occasional bumblebee and butterfly along with a variety of other insects, has been waiting for its prey from the Connecticut pedestal since 1977, after a group of children in Vernon proposed it to legislators.

Now, lawmakers have been confronted with even more schoolchildren — two groups of them — who have submitted dueling proposals to replace the praying mantis with the Autumn Meadowhawk Dragonfly or the Spring Azure Butterfly. And unlike the praying mantis, which was introduced to the state in the 1890s to help farmers control pests, both are native to Connecticut and therefore important to the state’s environment, the students argued.

“By having a non-native European praying mantis as our state insect, we are overlooking the thousands of native insects present in Connecticut’s ecosystem,” Katherine Boye Williams, 16, a junior at Watkinson School in Hartford, told a legislative committee. on Friday.

Williams said it’s “a source of irritation” that the praying mantis gets all the credit, and she hopes greater attention to natives like the Spring Azure Butterfly will spark more interest in protecting the state’s environment.

According to the Smithsonian Institution, 48 states have officially designated state insects, almost all of them colorful or fuzzy, with notable exceptions such as New Mexico’s Tarantula Hawk Wasp and South Carolina’s state bug — a cousin of Connecticut and also not native to the US. — the Carolina mantid.

Williams said her school’s environmental coalition ultimately recommended the Spring Azure Butterfly after a long process that included debating the merits of several candidates recommended by entomologists, narrowing the list to two, with 100 other schools, organizations and individuals were approached for input, ultimately collecting 1,189 votes for the small blue butterfly with a wingspan of about an inch wide.

“The Spring Azure, like Connecticut, is energetic and small,” she told lawmakers, and its colors even match the Connecticut state flag.

Representing the other insect candidate at Friday’s public hearing, state biologist Jane Seymour read a letter on behalf of students at Center Road School in Vernon, Conn. They extolled the virtues of the Autumn Meadowhawk Dragonfly, including the way it eats mosquitoes and other biting insects. and how its flight has been studied for aviation purposes, including by Connecticut-based Sikorsky Aircraft.

“The Meadow Hawk dragonfly is an interesting and beautiful creature that has been on this planet for 300 million years. That’s more than the dinosaurs,” the students wrote in the letter, noting their fears about how the insect’s habitat is being endangered.

Seymour supports the student-led efforts. Mantis religiosa can be a “voracious predator,” she said, and it “ate everything” after it was introduced to the U.S.

Mantis religiosa is known for its habit of standing motionless on four hind legs while appearing to ‘pray’ with its two front legs. Mantis religiosa is native to North Africa, Southern Europe and parts of Asia and can now be found throughout Connecticut from early May or June until the weather turns bad. gets cold, according to the state register and manual.

“While it looks cool, it is harmful to our native insects and should be replaced,” says Seymour.

While receptive to the change, lawmakers expressed concern Friday about having to choose and did not want to disappoint any of the students.

But in a sign of goodwill and cooperation not always seen in state politics, both sides offered a solution: Dub the Meadow Hawk Dragonfly as the state insect and the spring blue butterfly as the state butterfly. After all, some other states have both.

Rep. Matt Blumenthal, co-chair of the Committee on Government Administration and Elections, praised Williams for her “diplomatic” testimony after she proposed the possible compromise.

“You have already demonstrated some important political skills in dealing with this controversy between the two insects,” he told the teenager. “So I think you have a bright future ahead of you.”