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Praying mantis, Mantid, Mantises, Mantodea, Mantidae
Chinese, European, Carolina
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The praying mantis is a well known insect, written about as early as the Egyptian "Book of the Dead", where it acts as a guide to lost travelers.
Compared to other insects, little formal study has been devoted to the praying mantis. This is because insect research is generally devoted to bugs that eat the same food we do, or ones that do us harm. Grasshoppers, caterpillars, termites and mosquitoes would all fall into that category.
Generally accepted as a beneficial predator, the praying mantis isn't really of economic importance, so it hasn't been researched scientifically a great deal. However, mantids have been studied extensively by kids of all ages for centuries, including your author.
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Chinese praying mantis with black eyes
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Carolina mantid, Stagmomantis carolina, female
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European mantid, Mantis religiosa, female
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Over 1800 species of praying mantis occur around the world, with nearly 2 dozen making the United States home. The most common U.S. mantises were introduced from overseas, the European mantid, Mantis religiosa, the Chinese mantis, Tenodera aridifolia sinensis, and the Narrow-winged mantis, Tenodera angustipennis.
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European mantid, Mantis religiosa, female
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European mantid, Mantis religiosa, male
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Mantis fossils turn up rarely, and none have been found to occur before the Cenozoic period. Though, there's a 50's scifi monster movie that had a prehistoric one in it!
In "The Deadly Mantis", a frozen, super-sized praying mantis thaws out and goes berserk. Impervious to flamethrowers, bullets and bombs, it destroys an airplane before taking on the American east coast! Despite being an older black and white B movie, it's worth a Saturday night rental if you can get of hold of it. At the very least, you can give it the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment.
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The Deadly Mantis movie poster
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Mantises have a large triangular head, bulging compound eyes, and forelegs that are usually held in a prayer-like position. The word mantis, or mantes, means "prophet" or "fortune teller" in Greek, though I doubt they're any more accurate than your last fortune cookie was!
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Rows of spines along each forearm give the praying mantis a menacing appearance. Bite equal to bark, the praying mantis is carnivorous and a very skilled predator. They're the great white shark of the garden. Praying mantises have binocular vision which is useful for estimating distance. At times they appear to be looking back at us, and one can only wonder what's going on in that tiny insect brain. Besides their good vision for hunting and navigating, mantises use their strong and dexterous forelegs to easily grasp prey, or to avoid being preyed upon. Mantids also have ultrasonic hearing, likely to avoid being snagged by bats.
To the right you can see a male Chinese praying mantis hiding in a bush, waiting to ambush any unsuspecting prey that happens to land nearby.
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Chinese praying mantis ready to ambush prey
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A behavioral trait that contributes to the praying mantises' sinister reputation is that they're cannibalistic! Least the girls are anyway. Forget the pillow talk! Females often devour their mates after, or even during, mating. Instead of a lovers quarrel, it's been suggested that the extra food at a critical time in egg development might be the reason for the amorous munching.
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Proper classification of mantises within the class Insecta is not definitive. From what we know today, mantids appear to be the cousins of mankind's favorite houseguests, cockroaches and termites. However, a recent discovery suggests that they might be even more closely related to walkingsticks.
Unlike the similarly camouflaged, vegetarian, stick insect, here you can see a mantis devouring its butterfly prey.
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European praying mantid, Mantis religiosa, eating prey
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Carolina praying mantis cleaning itself, male
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Carolina mantid, Stagmomantis carolina, on flower
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There is some disagreement on the value of mantids in relation to humans. On one hand, they dispose of the critters that damage favorable plants, but.. they aren't picky eaters. Even beneficial insects like honeybees fall prey to the mantises' fatal grasp. Whether their aggregate effect is positive or negative is difficult to determine. Regardless of their net effect on environmental ecology, praying mantises sure are fascinating insects to observe, like your own miniature scifi movie in live action.
Andrew Williams / CritterZone.com
Literature cited
Carde, Ring T. 2003 Encyclopedia of Insects Academic Press pgs.675-677
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The praying mantis and mantid pictures on this page are available for commercial stock photography license. All text and photos that appear on this webpage are copyrighted and may not be copied or used in any way without permission from CritterZone.
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European praying mantis, mantid, gravid, pregnant, with eggs
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