Mantis religiosa
= Praying Mantis/=
Gottesanbeterin
Vergleich: Siehe: Insecta
Quelle: remedia.at
San people (Kalahari desert): a bee
carried a mantis across a river/the exhausted bee left the mantis on a floating
flower but planted a seed in the mantis's body before it died/this grew to
become the first human.
[Cynthia Shepard]
Complaints: poor energy, frayed nerves, physical
depletion, irritability, indecision about having a second child
This 41 year old woman began her consultation
by saying: “My energy is not as good as I’d like it to be. I’m taking iron and
prenatal vitamins now. Actually, the last time I felt really good was
when I was pregnant. I can make it through my
day, but I’d like to feel I have more vitality. I don’t have enough ‘oomph’ to
exercise. I’m feeling uncreative and I used to feel more creative.
I’m feeling uninspired by my job - feeling
un-creative, uninspired, really AVERAGE, and I don’t like feeling average, I
like feeling on top of my game.”
This is a woman who was accustomed to finding
success for her efforts. She’d been a competitive middle distance runner, a
double degree university graduate, and a highly proficient media
relations representative for a large government
public service organization. Her qualities of “stick-to-it-ive-ness”
and attention to detail were useful in her work. She also declared herself as
not the ‘most patient of people’, and I saw in her a sharp intelligence and
quickness of mind that was coupled with a low tolerance for slow or sloppy
work. Snap judgements, blunt comments
and accurate appraisals all comprised a part of her ‘smart as a whip’ work
mentality.
However strong her self-confidence may have
once been, it took a near fatal blow with the birth of her son. She said, “I
had such a difficult time with him that I felt completely incompetent as a
mother.” She described her child as an “awful baby”. He was “wide awake as soon
as he was born and he was super-alert all the time”. He couldn’t be put down, or he would “Scream
his head off, and he’d keep going and going”. Breast feeding did not go well,
and proper coaching ultimately helped sort out the nursing regime, but
unfortunately it came so late that the mother was totally disheartened. The
child didn’t sleep unless held by his mother, and as her own sleep deprivation
accumulated, her health began to decline. As she put it, 2½ years into
motherhood, “I was a wreck;
I swear I’ve been a wreck. In 2½ years I went
from feeling about 30 to feeling 60 (years old) - to being completely drained,
having no energy to do anything, no joy in life - it was just awful.”
Her marriage suffered along with her health.
Disagreements and fights came with the territory of caring for an extremely
needy youngster. Since returning to work, she felt heartened that at least
there she could “actually do something and feel semi-competent”. And while from
her boss’s perspective she’s performed well enough, internally her feeling was
“I was barely holding together.”
Now, she’s trying to choose, “do I focus on
career…, or do I have a second child…?” The decision is complicated by her
depleted state of health, her self-declared post-traumatic stress from her
first child (and anxiety about a possible
repeat), and her concerns about a lack of parenting solidarity with her
husband. For her immediate day to day life, though, the most significant change
she
was looking for was to feel more patience
towards her son, the child who she’d come to feel tormented by. I prescribed
Chocolate 30C about six weeks before the appointment, which brought the
“insect” remedy into focus as her similimum. After
having Chocolate she reported: “I was hoping to feel a lot more patient with my
son, and on one hand I noticed that, a bit… but I was feeling much more
intolerant of his behavior at times, too. When he was
being a total monkey, I just wanted to… to strangle him. Well, not literally, but I just felt I had no
tolerance for it, it was just like crrrrrh.”
This woman is an expressive speaker, and when
describing her frustrations with her demanding son she made numerous and
expressive hand gestures - palms up and down like the balancing of weight
scales, edge of hand slicing the air in a cutting motion, fiercely gripped
fingers as if strangling someone, and so on. She is equally animated by the
powerful love that she feels for her son,
and sheer frustration.
She spoke of having challenges disciplining her
precocious and tireless child whom she described as being “up and down -
angelic and awful”. Parenting, when it comes to guidance and discipline,
is never an easy thing, and for this woman
complications arose because her discipline attempts were not supported, and were
at times even questioned by her husband, in front of her poorly behaving son.
Of this she said “I think it’s completely inappropriate, and it just makes me
nuts!” As she considers the idea of having a second child, some of her
differences with her husband weigh in heavily on the “nay” side. Their “Mr.
Intensity” child has “frayed the nerves” of both parents. While on many levels
they work well together as a couple, when stressed out, she says of her
husband, “when
he irritates me, he just completely irritates
me, and I think, why the hell am I married to you? You are making me nuts!”
What type of irritation was she experiencing?
She feels irritated on all kinds of levels with her husband, but basically she
feels a lack of support from him. “But”, she said, “he’s not an axe murderer…
everybody would agree he’s a very nice guy. It’s just… it’s just that his
mannerisms just bug the hell out of me. At times it’s fine, but when he’s
irritating me I honestly feel like, UGHHHH!”
She couldn’t put a word to her feelings; an
animal-like cry expressed it best, and at this point she did a type of
whole-body gesture - squirming in her seat and moving her arms sharply as if to
shake something off. “Sometimes I feel
like, sometimes it feels like being married to N (her husband) is like wearing
a hair shirt - just so constantly irritating!”
At other times irritation is not nearly a
strong enough word to describe her state; this happens when she finds her
husband making “provocative comments”, typically in the form of sarcasm. She
says that he “likes to sort of twist the needle... sort of being deliberately
obnoxious”. And her reaction to this? She says, “It just makes me angry - my
response is to just go right in and chew him a new head!”
A recent mishap, when her son had slipped in
the tub and hit his head, brought this feeling into sharp focus once again.
Miscommunication and misunderstanding were involved, but in the heat of
the moment her anger towards her husband was
very intense. Upon reflection, she said of her anger “I don’t think I was
necessarily appropriate in wanting to rip his head off at that particular
moment.”
By this point it was clear that this woman was
fully in an insect state - the praying mantis insect state! What is she talking
about? She’s irritated. Her husband irritates her. Certain behaviors
“bug”
the hell out of her. And her candid response to
this irritated and bugged feeling? Anger: she “would have shredded him”, “go
right in & chew him a new head”, “rip his head off”. These were descriptions
that had my mind leaping to the praying mantis.
The brute violence of her anger can be
witnessed in the sexual cannibalism of this insect, and the extreme irritation
she felt, not only emotionally but physically - like needing to squirm out of a
‘hair shirt’. This is reflected in the development of immature mantises; they molt their skin six or seven times before maturity. Materia medica that existed at
the time suggested that this remedy has the potential for being “unfeeling and
hard hearted”, but the extreme anger and irritability was not well
described. Itching skin was noted in the
physicals, but a strong quantity of confirmatory rubrics was not to be found in
this newish remedy. But the animal state, her animated expression, painted such
a vivid picture of the mantis that the prescription was clear. We began with Mantis religiosa
200C, a single dose.
Six weeks later, I saw her again and the change
she reported was dramatic. “Whatever it was you gave me was awesome; I feel so
much better. The underlying extreme irritation I was feeling… GONE! My son is
not getting on my nerves nearly as much as he was. And my irritation with my
husband? Before it was high; now it’s
very, very low. He still bugs me from time to time, but not nearly to the same
extent. I’m feeling much more mellow and happy. It’s such a relief!”
This was a dramatic change, and I was
interested in seeing if she could describe how the “relief” from her previous
frayed nerves/extreme irritation state came about. Her answer is hopefully illuminating
for identifying the nature of the suffering in Mantis religiosa
cases; she said, “It was like something unravelling, like tight wires,
loosening and loosening, and then coming down. I can’t describe it any other
way, but within two weeks for sure, even within a week, I was feeling RELIEF;
it’s the only way I can describe it, not feeling so bugged, right?” As she said
“bugged” she made another gesture with her fantastically expressive hands - a
tight gripping gesture as if all the strength of her will was focused in her
ruthlessly clenched fingers.
She remained with this remedy for a little
under a year. It met her state, and after only two doses she was done with it.
Longer term results were lovely. She reported that, “I’m feeling almost mellow,
which for me is unheard of!” (She laughs at herself.) Her relationships became
healthier, and with her son she said, “I’ve actually been feeling a lot of joy
with him… I think that’s what you’re supposed to feel when you have a baby and
I never felt that. He still runs me off my feet and talks a mile a minute, but
I’ve got a deep sort of contentment which I didn’t really have before.”
She summed it up with a laugh and said: “I’ll
take more of that anytime; it was really good - best drug I’ve ever had! Whatever
you pinpointed,” and here she made another gesture, first pointing her finger
and then ticking her nose with it, “was awesome. Thank you.”
[ZeitOnline: Dagny Lüdemann]
Ihre Fangarme sehen aus, als preise sie eine höhere Macht. Die Gottesanbeterin wurde zum Insekt des Jahres gekürt. Weil es wärmer wird, wird sie in Deutschland häufiger.
Ursprünglich eingeschleppt, gilt "Mantis religiosa" in Deutschland mittlerweile als heimisch – und wird sogar als "gefährdet" auf der Roten Liste geführt. Da ihr Bestand im Zuge des wärmeren Klimas zunimmt, diskutieren Biologen, ob das noch nötig ist. © Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images
"Mantis religiosa" – so heißt die Gottesanbeterin auf Latein. Von Afrika aus hat sich die auffällige Fangschrecke inzwischen auch auf der Nordhalbkugel verbreitet. Diese hier (das Grüne rechts
im Bild) sitzt in Tokio auf einer Schönlilie. © Franck Robichon/dpa
Auch in Europa leben Gottesanbeterinnen. "Mantis religiosa" ist eine der verbreitetsten Arten von Fangschrecken. Diese hier wurde in Frankreich fotografiert. © Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images
Diese hier hockt vor einer Pampelmuse in Israel. © Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
Schau mir in die Facettenaugen! In den 1950ern entstand dieses Porträt einer Gottesanbeterin. © Harry Brevoort/Three Lions/Getty Images
Tanz auf dem Apfel: ein weiteres Exemplar aus Israel © Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
In Lima werden die Insekten sogar gezüchtet. Sie werden dort als natürliche Pflanzenschützer auf Feldern eingesetzt. Sie fressen nämlich Fliegen, Heuschrecken, Käfer und andere Insekten,
darunter auch Schädlinge.
Opfergabe für die Gottesanbeterin. Normalerweise können die Fangschrecken sehr gut selbst jagen. Selbst Wespen können sie erlegen.
Ursprünglich eingeschleppt, gilt "Mantis religiosa" in Deutschland mittlerweile als heimisch - und wird sogar als "gefährdet" auf der Roten Liste geführt. Da ihr Bestand im Zuge des wärmeren Klimas zunimmt, diskutieren Biologen, ob das noch nötig ist.
"Mantis religiosa" - so heißt die Gottesanbeterin auf Latein. Von Afrika aus hat sich die auffällige Fangschrecke inzwischen auch auf der Nordhalbkugel verbreitet. Keine Panik, Sie müssen nicht wegschauen. Es ist ein ziemlich elegantes Wesen, das den Thron des "Insekts des Jahres 2017" besteigen wird. Die Europäische Gottesanbeterin, Mantis religiosa.
Sie löst damit den Dunkelbraunen Kugelspringer (Allacma fusca) ab - ein bis zu seiner Krönung weitgehend unbekannter und für Menschenaugen eher hässlicher Zeitgenosse. Vergleichsweise anmutig ist dagegen die Thronfolgerin. Eine Jury aus Zoologen und Naturschützern des Naturschutzbundes Deutschland (Nabu) verleiht den Titel einmal pro Jahr. Die Gottesanbeterin breitet sich derzeit in unseren Breiten aus.
Ein Leben wie ein Blatt
Still sitzen, wie ein Blatt mit Ästen aussehen, abwarten, zupacken - mit dieser Strategie haben es Gottesanbeterinnen (Mantodea) weit gebracht. Seit Jahrmillionen leben sie auf der Erde – haben Dinosaurier noch mit den eigenen Facettenaugen gesehen. Das älteste bislang bekannte Mantis-Fossil – als Bernstein-Einschluss verewigt in einem hart gewordenen Tropfen Baumharz – ist 97 Millionen Jahre alt und wurde im Gebiet des heutigen Myanmars gefunden.
Um die 2.500 Arten der Fangschrecken leben heute weltweit verstreut. In Deutschland gibt es sie noch gar nicht so lange. Sie wurden aus afrikanischen Breiten eingeschleppt – gelten mittlerweile aber nicht mehr als Invasoren, sondern als einheimische Art. Diese gilt sogar als gefährdet - doch das ist vielleicht bald schon hinfällig: "In den letzten Jahren hat sich die Gottesanbeterin stark ausgebreitet - das scheint auch eine Folge des Klimawandels zu sein", sagte Thomas Schmitt vom Entomologischen Institut in Müncheberg und Vorsitzender des Auswahlkuratoriums.
Schau mir in die Facettenaugen!
Fangschrecken zählen zu den Fluginsekten (Pterygota), sind dazu aber oft zu faul. Lieber warten sie regungslos und teils stundenlang auf vorbeikrabbelnde oder -schwirrende Beute: Käfer, Heuschrecken, Spinnen, Wespen – all das schnappen sich Gottesanbeterinnen mit ihren langen Fangarmen und verspeisen es mit ihren scharfen Mandibeln.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum