"Iris oratoria", a new invertebrate has been found in our school!

Last twelfth of nov. 2008 a new invertebrate was found in the playground of our school, "José María de la Fuente Public School" (The priest of insects). The student Irene González Soriano, from sixth grade B and another three students, Beatriz Saavedra del Hoyo, Rosalía Medina Prado and María Rivera López from fifth grade B saw a very strange kind of praying mantis. It was dead and they took it to the classroom in a small plastic bottle.

The animal was green and had very nice wings with bright colours. After looking it up in an insects´guide, it´s been identified as an "Iris oratoria" a smaller species of praying mantis. It is also Known in English as a Mediterranean mantis or Iris mantis.

Just one week ago we studied invertebrates and we made a list of about twenty different species that we can watch in our school. At the beginning of this course we studied the praying mantis because there was one in our corridor.

Francisco Zamora Soria, nov. 2008