About Brunneria subaptera Saussure, 1869
Brunneria subaptera, commonly known as the small-winged stick mantis, is a species of praying mantis. This species is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and it occurs in South American grasslands. Sexual cannibalism, where a recently inseminated female mantis eats her mate, is a well-documented behavior frequently referenced for mantis reproduction, but this species does not participate in this behavior. Instead, B. subaptera reproduces through thelytokous parthenogenesis, a breeding process that produces offspring from unfertilized eggs. Entomologists have raised concern that this mode of reproduction will leave the species with an extremely limited gene pool.
