X-Mantis

Kelly’s Field Notes

Common Name: Praying Mantis

Order: Mantodea

Family: Mantidae

Genus: There are 75 genera within family Mantidae.

Species: There are currently 1,255 species in family Mantidae. It is the largest family within order Mantodea.

Notable species:

• European mantis (Mantis religiosa) - found throughout Europe (minus the British Isles), Asia and Africa, it has also been introduced to North America. For some reason, it is the state insect of Connecticut. The European mantis can be yellow, green, or brown. They also have light eyespots on the inside of their forelimbs. They can reach a maximum length of 3.5 in (8.8 cm).

• Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) - found throughout North America and into northern South America. It is the state insect of South Carolina. They have a tan-camouflage coloration with the ability to adjust coloration with each molt. Adult females have wings that only extend to half the length of their abdomen. They can reach a maximum length of 2.5 in (6.5 cm).

• Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) - introduced to the U.S. to Mt. Airey, PA in 1896. They are larger than the previously mentioned mantises and can be brown, green or a combination of the two colors. They also have a long stripe down the side of their abdomen. They can reach a maximum length of 5 in (12.7 cm).

• Narrow-winged or Japanese mantis (Tenodera angustipennis) - introduced to the U.S. to Aberdeen, Maryland around 1921 from east Asia. They are found in Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In Japanese they are called the Korean mantis or the true mantis. They are brown or green and long and slender (Chinese mantises are larger and stockier). They do not have the inner arm eyespots of the European mantis. They can reach a maximum length of 3.3 in (8.5 cm).

• Arizona or New Mexico or Bordered mantis (Stagmomantis limbata) - found in the southwestern U.S. They are green or tan in color and reach a maximum of 3 in in length (7.6 cm).

• Unicorn mantises (genera Phthersigena, Pseudovates, Pseudovates, Zoolea) - found in Arizona, Texas, Mexico, and parts of South America (depending on species). Most are tan camouflage in color with a horn-like structure on top of its head (two overlapping structures) and an upturned abdomen. The “horn” breaks up the shape of the mantis, adding to its camouflage. The “horn” changes shape with each molt.

Description: 

While we are focusing on one mantid family for this episode, it’s important to get the evolutionary low-down on the entire order. Mantids have had a sorted taxonomical past! Originally placed in Order Orthoptera with stick insects, cockroaches, and rock crawlers, mantids were later moved to order Dictyoptera with roaches, before finally being elevated to its own order Mantodea (Dictyoptera is now a Superorder, but still contains mantids and roach orders together). Mantises and cockroaches share a distant cockroach-like ancestor (roaches are the older taxa). If you take a look at the front legs of roaches and mantises they have the same 6 segments (coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, tarsus, pretarsus) but the mantis is better suited to prey capture. Their coxa is long (for snatching prey) and the tibia and femur have inward-facing spines to hold onto prey. The end of their front appendages (tarsus and pretarsus) look basically the same so they can walk. They also both have chewing mouthparts, create oothecae (egg cases), and two sets of wings (one leathery, one clear). The diversification of mantises likely occurred in the Early-Middle Jurassic (164-203 mya). 

Note - Dictyoptera means “netwing” because you can easily see the veins running through the insect's clear wings. There are 30 orders within this superorder.

On with family Mantidae. While this group is the largest of its order, it is also the most diverse. It encompasses many body shapes, sizes, camouflage, and geographic ranges. Mantises in family Mantidae resemble mantises from other families, with generally oblong abdomens, triangular shaped heads with two large compound eyes, raptorial front limbs, and wings (some fly, some do not). They come in a variety of colors, from yellow, to green, to tan, to orange, to brown. Their hindwings often have red and black spots they use to scare away predatoes. Some are fully camouflaged with mottled cuticles. Some are slender throughout their bodies, others have large leaf-shaped hoods (subfamily Choeradodinae) or leaf-shaped abdomens (genus Pseudoxyops). 

A Note on Mantis Hearing: 

Mantises were once thought to be deaf. However, some species do have one ear on their metathorax. It is very sensitive to ultrasound. While scientists originally thought this was to avoid bats, newer studies indicate mantis hearing pre-dates the appearance of bats. So it may be helpful in detecting prey, warding off predators, or maybe even mantis communication. Several extant species do not have hearing structures so this would be an interesting evolutionary avenue. The European mantis (Mantis religiosa) can stridulate their abdomens as part of a defensive display.

Life Cycle: 

Mantises, like their cockroach cousins, have incomplete metamorphosis, hatching from eggs laid in an ootheca (large sac) usually attached to a tree or shrub, then moving through six or seven nymph stages depending on species, before their final molt to become an adult. Some species can lay several ootheca over their short lifetimes, with the eggs overwintering to hatch in the following spring.

Some mantises engage in cannibalism during mating. The European mantis (Mantis religiosa) was studied in situ to gauge if the cannibalism was an issue of laboratory limitations or common in the field. One study showed males were cannibalized in 30% of matings observed. Another study involving the false garden mantis (Pseudomantis albofimbriata) showed a correlation between female body condition and whether or not she had mated before. Females in poor body condition cannibalized more often as well as females who had previously mated. While both of these species are in family Mantidae, this is not the only family of mantis that engages in sexual cannibalism.

Mantis Binocular Vision:

The Aussie purple-winged mantis (Tenodera australasiae) and the African mantis (Sphodromantis viridis) were the first species to demonstrate stereopsis in insects. Stereopsis is when the visual fields of two eyes overlap (binocular vision). This gives clarity to the object and reduces optical illusions (think looking for camouflaged prey!). Damselflies also have binocular vision, but their cousins the dragonflies do not.

Super Powers:

• Binocular vision - the ability to have sharp focus is a must for a hunter. But! When hunting moving objects the mantis’s eyes focus on the movement. In humans, our eyes put together the entire image in mantises, it’s movement and where that movement is going. So while the mantis sees in 3D, like we do, it’s not in the same way. A study was done in the African mantis (Sphodromantis lineola), perhaps the most well studied of all mantises.

• Triangulation - using their amazing binocular vision, mantises can calculate the distance to the prey they are hunting, for a more accurate strike. 

• Saccades - mantises often move their heads (movements called saccades) when hunting to center their prey within their field of vision, especially if that prey is moving. The faster the prey movement, the faster the mantis moves its head. This gives them a more accurate strike window.

• Flexibility - mantises can turn their heads 180o to get a better view.

• Speed - the Madagascan marbled praying mantis (Polyspilota aeruginosa) has been clocked grabbing prey sometimes as quickly as in only 60 milliseconds, while others taking up to 290 milliseconds (each millisecond is one-thousandth of a second!). They are even known to stop an attack partway through if a correction was needed or to completely abandon the attack.

• Strength - some mantises have been known to take on prey much larger than they are! From birds to lizards.

• Flight - some species can fly, although not usually very well.

• Jumping - using their powerful hind legs, mantises can catch some air!

• Stridulation - to warn predators some mantises can rub their abdomens to create sound.

• Stealth - they are ambush predators 

Mantises in Culture:

• In China, mantises are associated with courage and fearlessness.

• There are styles of martial art named after the mantis. 

• In pre-Columbian Nicaragua there is a mantis deity called Madre Culebra or Mother of the Snake.

• In the Ozarks in the U.S. people in the early 1900’s gave mantises the nickname “Devil’s horse.”

• M.C. Escher created the woodcut Dream depicting a giant mantis standing on a sleeping Bishop.

• In some African tribes mantises are said to be a sign of good luck.

• The bug-type pokemon Scyther is inspired by a praying mantis. 

• There is a Marvel superhero named Mantis, who is perhaps best well known for the Guardians of the Galaxy movies where she is played by Pom Klementief 

References:

“Chinese Mantis.” Wikipedia, 26 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_mantis.

“European Mantis.” Wikipedia, 20 Aug. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_mantis.

Hill, Stephanie A. "Sound generation in Mantis religiosa (Mantodea: Mantidae): stridulatory structures and acoustic signal." Journal of Orthoptera Research 16.1 (2007): 35-49.

Jayaweera, Anuradhi, et al. "The risk of sexual cannibalism and its effect on male approach and mating behaviour in a praying mantid." Animal behaviour 110 (2015): 113-119.

Kral, Karl. "The functional significance of mantis peering behaviour." European Journal of Entomology 109.3 (2012).

Lawrence, S. E. "Sexual cannibalism in the praying mantid, Mantis religiosa: a field study." Animal Behaviour 43.4 (1992): 569-583.

‌Legendre, Frédéric, et al. "Phylogeny of Dictyoptera: dating the origin of cockroaches, praying mantises and termites with molecular data and controlled fossil evidence." Plos one 10.7 (2015): e0130127.

Main, Douglas. “New “Unicorn” Mantis Species Found in Brazilian Rainforest.” National Geographic, 7 Feb. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/unicorn-praying-mantis-discovered-atlantic-forest?loggedin=true&rnd=1751044682831. Accessed 27 June 2025.

Nityananda, Vivek, et al. "A novel form of stereo vision in the praying mantis." Current Biology 28.4 (2018): 588-593.

Patel, Shveta, and Rajendra Singh. "Updated checklist and distribution of Mantidae (Mantodea: Insecta) of the world." International Journal of Research Studies in Zoology 2.4 (2016): 17-54.

Rossel, Samuel. "Binocular vision in insects: How mantids solve the correspondence problem." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 93.23 (1996): 13229-13232.

Rossoni, Sergio, and Jeremy E. Niven. "Prey speed influences the speed and structure of the raptorial strike of a ‘sit-and-wait’predator." Biology letters 16.5 (2020): 20200098.

“Stagmomantis Limbata.” Wikipedia, 6 Nov. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagmomantis_limbata.

Supple, Jack A., et al. "Binocular encoding in the damselfly pre-motor target tracking system." Current Biology 30.4 (2020): 645-656.

“Tenodera Angustipennis.”Wikipedia,  15 Dec. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenodera_angustipennis

Yager, David D., and Ronald R. Hoy. "Audition in the praying mantis, Mantis religiosa L.: identification of an interneuron mediating ultrasonic hearing." Journal of Comparative Physiology A 165 (1989): 471-493.

Yager, David D., and Gavin J. Svenson. "Patterns of praying mantis auditory system evolution based on morphological, molecular, neurophysiological, and behavioural data." Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 94.3 (2008): 541-568.

Yamawaki, Yoshifumi. "Investigating saccade programming in the praying mantis Tenodera aridifolia using distracter interference paradigms." Journal of insect physiology 52.10 (2006): 1062-1072.