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

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — When it comes to state insects, most states honor beloved and benign bugs, like butterflies, honey bees and ladybugs. Connecticut has designated a voracious predator as its bug-to-be-most-proud-of for decades, but its reign could soon come to an end.

The European “praying” mantis, recognized by its raptorial forelegs and known for catching and eating the occasional bumble bee and butterfly along with all kinds of other insects, has been awaiting its prey from atop Connecticut’s pedestal since 1977, after a group of kids in Vernon proposed it to lawmakers.

Now legislators have been confronted by more schoolchildren — two groups of them — who submitted dueling proposals to replace the mantis, with either the Autumn Meadowhawk Dragonfly or the Spring Azure Butterfly. And unlike the mantis, which was introduced to the state in the 1890s to help farmers combat 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 that are present in Connecticut’s ecosystem,” Katherine Boye Williams, 16, a junior at the Watkinson School in Hartford, told a legislative committee on Friday.

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