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Mantodea (or mantises, mantes) is an order of insects that contains over 2,400 species and about 430 genera in 15 families worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. Most of the species are in the family Mantidae.
The English common name for the order is the mantises, or rarely (using a Latinized plural of Greek mantis), the mantes. The name mantid refers only to members of the family Mantidae, which was, historically, the only family in the Order, but with 14 additional families recognized in recent decades, this term can be confusing. The other common name, often applied to any species in the order, is "praying mantis", because of the typical "prayer-like" posture with folded fore-limbs, although the eggcorn "preying mantis" is sometimes used in reference to their predatory habits. In Europe and other regions, however, the name "praying mantis" refers to only a single species, Mantis religiosa. The closest relatives of mantises are the termites and cockroaches (order Blattodea). They are sometimes confused with phasmids (stick/leaf insects) and other elongated insects such as grasshoppers and crickets, or other insects with raptorial forelegs such as mantisflies.
This little creature spent a few days on our front porch. Well it wasn't so little - measuring about 10cm long. We found it's shell discarded nearby so it was just readying it's new skin before travelling off on new adventures.
Taken with a vintage Canon FD 100mm macro lens connected to my DSLR - haven't used this camera/ lens combination for a long time.
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While out in the back yard looking for Monarch caterpillars I came across this baby preying mantis waiting in the tall dried grasses for perhaps a dragon fly to come its way.
Chinese Mantis (Tenodera Sinensis)
Nikon 55mm f/2.8 NIKKOR Micro. Hand held, single frame shot at f/8.
California mantis (Stagmomantis californica) visiting my vegetable garden in San Diego, California. This is a carnivorous insect, sitting on my cucumber plant is ~2" in length and smaller than the one I found several days ago on the tomatillo. California mantis are native to the warmer and dryer regions of the state.
This is one of our native mantis species, making a meal of an introduced species-- a european honeybee. Mantids have excellent publicists and have gained a reputation of being extremely beneficial insects, while the reality is that they are voraciously indiscriminate and are as likely to eat another "good" bug as they are to eat a pest, perhaps more so. All the same, I'm in the habit of leaving the native mantises alone, although I will dispose of the chinese mantises which are larger and have been documented dining on hummingbirds and other small birds. The flower is white crownbeard (frostweed), and the location here is Forest Park in St Louis, Missouri
Una pequeña Mantis muy curiosa
.© All Rights Reserved. Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.
I think that this is South African Mantis, though hard to tell from native New Zealand one's but it does look to be a female full of eggs!