mantis

{Plural – ‘mantises’ or ‘mantes’} (also called ‘praying mantis’)

a kind of insect – flesh-eating –  brown, greyish or green elongated body in three parts: head, thorax and abdomen – three pairs of legs (6 legs), the first pair developed (modified) into thick strong arms with which to grab the prey (= animals that it kills and eat), two pairs of wings, (4 wings) triangular head with sharp teeth-like mandibles, large compound eyes, a pair of short antennae, size: varies greatly, from 1 inch to 1 foot long, (on average 3-5 inches), weight: — ; feeds on insects, (some large species) spiders, tree frogs, monkeys, mice, snakes and birds; lives for 10-12 months; about 2,000 species (kinds) found worldwide

Special Features:

The ‘European mantis’ is the state insect of Connecticut; and the ‘Carolina mantis’ is the state insect of South Carolina, USA.

Mantises are fascinating insects.  They are called ‘praying’ mantis because of the way they rest keeping their first pair of legs in a prayer-like manner, as if they were praying to God!

The praying mantis is some times misspelled as ‘preying mantis’ (‘preying’ = killing and eating the other animals); however, even that misspelt word suits it perfectly well because the praying mantis is an expert ‘preying’ insect!

A praying mantis can turn its head180º, without having to turn its body!

The largest praying mantis was the 1½-foot-long one found in southern China in 1929!

The praying mantes are very useful insects: they do not harm people, they do not eat or damage crops; on the contrary, they eat away the insects that are pests!!

Mantises have well developed wings only in their final stage of changes, with which they fly, only when they are attacked.  However, some kinds of mantises have small wings, and some others do not have wings at all!

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