I want to know that the praying mantis are useful or harmful for the agroecosystm
Praying mantis are beneficial insects feeding on pests harmful to crop plants. Therefore they are important and useful for agriculture. Please have a look at these links and PDF attachments for details.
http://www.prayingmantisfacts.net/praying_mantis_as_beneficial_insect.html
http://www.matrixbookstore.biz/mantis.htm
Dear Avishek,
Gardeners who prefer to avoid pesticides may encourage mantises in the hope of controlling insect pests. However, mantises do not have key attributes of biological pest control agents; they do not specialize in a single pest insect, and do not multiply rapidly in response to an increase in such a prey species, but are general predators. They eat whatever they can catch, including both harmful and beneficial insects. They therefore have "negligible value" in biological control.
References:
Bender, Steve (30 August 2015). "Pet Your Praying Mantis". The Daily South.
Doutt, R. L. (31 July 2015) "The Praying Mantis (Leaflet # 21019)" (PDF). University of California, Division of Agricultural Sciences.
I agree with Dilip view that praying mantis does not have a specialised prey list but when one tries to understand the ecological role of the Praying mantis- we will be able to appreciate the role of praying mantis
Have a good day
yes definitely they are generalist predators but more or less they are very important for the agriecosystem
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