If there’s an insect sure to cause a double-take, it’s a mantis. It’s the only insect able to move its head independently of its body, and it just might swivel its head and stare at you! Many people call any mantis a praying mantis because of their short forelegs and how the insect holds them in a prayer-like pose. However, there’s only one actual “Praying Mantis” species, and that’s the European Mantis, Mantis religiosa. It arrived in the United States from Europe in 1899 in a shipment of plants and now inhabits many areas of the U.S. and Canada.
European mantis, Mantis religiosa (© WildMedia / Shutterstock)
Mantises will eat anything that crosses their path, including critters their own size and sometimes larger. Their forelegs are specially adapted for holding on, and their mouthparts are for chewing them up. More’s the pity for their prey, which includes insects, frogs, lizards, rodents, and other small animals who fall within their reach and their own kin. So, if any prayers were to be had, they’d come from the prey about to be devoured!
Although they’re large, mantises aren’t dangerous to humans. Hold your finger out in front of one; it might even step up on it and inspect you while you inspect it!
Mantises are beneficial
Mantises are considered very beneficial because they prey on harmful insects, but being indiscriminate, they kill large numbers of good insects, too. So, it may be more accurate to consider them mostly beneficial and sometimes not. Garden centers and gardeners often purchase a mantis egg case, called an ootheca, which holds up to 200 eggs. When they hatch, they’re an army of voracious carnivores.
Mantis ootheca (© Bankim Desai / Shutterstock)
Posture explains their name
“Mantis” is from the Greek mantes for soothsayer or prophet, an obvious reference to the insects’ typical body posture. Although any mantis is commonly called a praying mantis, each species has a specific name, such as the European Mantis, Mantis religiosa, Carolina Mantis, Stagmomantis Carolina, and Thistle Mantis, Blepharopsis mendica. In all, there are over 2,400 mantis species, all in the order Mantodea. They’re found in various regions around the world, including Europe, but primarily in areas with a tropical environment. Twenty species occur in the United States, mainly in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada.
Mantises are related to cockroaches and termites!
The oldest fossilized mantises date back to the late Jurassic Period, about 200 million years ago. It’s hard to picture a long, green mantis, a flat, brown cockroach, and a white, maggoty-looking termite being related. Still, they’re all classified into the superorder Dictyoptera, which signifies their common evolutionary ancestry. This relationship is supported by their shared structural and developmental characteristics, such as segmented bodies, two pairs of wings (in many species), long antennae, and incomplete metamorphosis. Although their behaviors and ecological roles differ—mantises are predatory, cockroaches are scavengers, and termites are detritivores—molecular studies have shown that termites evolved from cockroach ancestors, leading to the inclusion of termites alongside cockroaches. This classification highlights their evolutionary connections despite their varied lifestyles.
Effective predators
Their movements are so slow and deliberate that you may consider them slow-moving critters. But these babies can strike prey in 1/20 of a second (50 ms)—too fast for human eyes to perceive. Calm and with no particular fear of humans, mantises will pose for our close inspection or our camera lens.
Physical description of mantises
The tiniest mantis species are as small as 0.3 inches (8 mm) long, but some measure over 6.0 inches (15 cm). You’ll immediately recognize your first one, whatever the size, by its body shape and stance—and the way it can turn its head. No other insect can do that without also turning its body.
Chinese Mantis, Tenodera sinensis, a U.S. species (Judy Gallagher / Flickr; CC BY 2.0)
The mantis’ head is also distinctive because it’s triangular, with large compound eyes and short, slender antennae. It sits atop a long, skinny “neck.” Their body is unique in still another way: the only animal to have only one ear. The forewings are leathery and used to protect delicate hind wings, which are the ones actually used for flight. (Immature mantids and some species have tiny wings and are flightless.) Mantis forelegs are strong and equipped with spines that help them hang on to their prey. They typically move slowly and stealthily, but some species will give chase. For more about insects, see The ins and outs of an insect’s anatomy
Where to look for mantises
Seeing one usually depends on a chance encounter. Once found, they make it easy for us to observe them closely. Most are found in grasses or leaves of flowers, herbs, shrubs, and trees. However, they’re not glued to plants, and some may be poised for action on your patio furniture or porch railing. Some species hang out on the ground. They’re hard to see because they sport camouflage colors of green, brown, grizzled browns, or gray. Some species in other regions of the world are stunningly beautiful and remain motionless for minutes at a time. Often, it’s only when they move that they’re spotted.
Life cycle
Mantises undergo simple metamorphosis: from egg to nymph to adult. They mate in late summer or early fall. You may have heard that part of the mating ritual for females is biting off the head of the male during or after copulation. This certainly makes for a risky encounter for the male, but this occurs more often in captivity and seldom in the wild.
In the fall, the female lays a cluster of eggs in a large egg sac called an ootheca (oh-oh-THEE-kuh). Attaching them to twigs, she may lay up to twenty-two of these cases, and the following spring, thirty to 200 nymphs will hatch from each. Nymphs look like tiny, wingless adults and spend the summer eating and growing. They’ll undergo six or seven molts, with the last revealing fully developed wings. Adults live only through fall, just long enough to mate and provide for the next generation. The female dies about two weeks after laying her egg sacs.
To learn about the many species of mantises, check Wikipedia here
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