Praying mantises belong to the order Mantodea, which contains roughly 2,500 described species spread across about 430 genera. They range from the tiny ground-dwelling bark mantises barely a centimeter long to the giant Asian mantis stretching beyond 15 centimeters. Despite the popular image of a single green insect perched on a garden twig, mantis species occupy an enormous range of forms, habitats, and ecological roles, from flower-mimicking ambush predators in tropical rainforests to desert-adapted species that sprint across sand. What unites them is a shared body plan built around a swiveling head, enormous compound eyes, and a pair of raptorial forelegs designed for snatching prey at startling speed.
Deep Roots in the Jurassic
Mantises are far older than most people assume. Molecular dating analyses place the diversification of crown-group praying mantises in the Early to Middle Jurassic, with a mode estimate around 192 million years ago and a range spanning roughly 164 to 204 million years ago.1PLoS ONE. Phylogeny of Dictyoptera: Dating the Origin of Cockroaches, Praying Mantises and Termites with Molecular Data and Controlled Fossil Evidence That puts the earliest mantis lineages in the same era as the earliest feathered dinosaurs. Their closest living relatives are cockroaches and termites, all grouped within the superorder Dictyoptera. The common ancestor of cockroaches and termites split from the mantis line back in the Permian, over 270 million years ago.2PLoS ONE. Phylogeny of Dictyoptera: Dating the Origin of Cockroaches, Praying Mantises and Termites with Molecular Data and Controlled Fossil Evidence The signature raptorial forelegs that define the group are a textbook case of convergent evolution: unrelated insects like mantidflies (order Neuroptera) independently evolved strikingly similar grasping forelimbs for the same ambush-predator lifestyle.3Zoomorphology. Functional morphology of the raptorial forelegs in Mantispa styriaca (Insecta: Neuroptera)
How the Strike Works
The raptorial strike is what most people think of when they picture a mantis, and it unfolds in two broad phases. First, there is an approach stage: the mantis orients its body and extends the coxa joint of its foreleg toward the prey. Then comes the sweep, where the tibia snaps shut against the femur like a jackknife. High-speed filming of juvenile ghost mantises (Phyllocrania paradoxa) at 1,000 frames per second revealed that the sweep phase is highly stereotyped, meaning it unfolds nearly the same way every time, while the approach phase shows more flexibility and adjusts to where the prey happens to be.4PubMed. Patterns of variation in feeding strike kinematics of juvenile ghost praying mantis (Phyllocrania paradoxa): are components of the strike stereotypic? The mantis compensates for prey position mainly by changing the angle of the coxa joint and the amount of forward lunge, rather than altering the high-speed snap itself. That combination of a flexible aim and a ballistic grab gives mantises a reliable capture rate across different prey sizes and positions.
Hunting Vertebrates
Most mantis species eat other arthropods, but the larger species are capable of far more ambitious meals. A global review documented 147 incidents of mantises catching small birds, spanning 13 countries on every continent except Antarctica. Twelve mantid species in nine genera were involved, and their prey included 24 identified bird species from 14 families, primarily hummingbirds and small songbirds.5The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. Bird Predation By Praying Mantises: A Global Perspective In a broader review of all arthropod-on-vertebrate predation events, mantises stood out as the dominant arthropod predators of birds specifically, while spiders accounted for the majority of attacks on other vertebrate groups.6Global Ecology and Biogeography. Arthropods as vertebrate predators: A review of global patterns
These events are not limited to adults catching birds on the wing. Observations in southern Iran recorded female European mantises (Mantis religiosa) feeding on the nestlings of purple sunbirds and crested larks directly in the nest.7PubMed Central. Opportunistic depredation of songbird nestlings by female praying mantids (Mantodea: Mantidae) The picture that emerges is of a generalist predator that, in its larger species, regularly pushes into vertebrate territory when the opportunity arises.
A Unique Form of Stereo Vision
Mantises are the only invertebrates confirmed to use stereoscopic vision, the ability to judge distance by comparing slightly different images from two forward-facing eyes. Researchers demonstrated this definitively by fitting mantises with tiny 3D glasses and showing them virtual targets on a screen. The mantises struck at targets whose disparity indicated the prey was within catching range, regardless of the target’s actual physical distance, proving they perceived simulated depth the same way they perceive real depth.8Scientific Reports. Insect stereopsis demonstrated using a 3D insect cinema
What surprised researchers was that mantis stereopsis operates on a fundamentally different algorithm from the version found in vertebrates. Vertebrate stereo vision compares the brightness patterns in each eye’s image directly. Mantis stereo vision instead detects regions of the image where brightness is changing, essentially looking for motion. This means mantis stereopsis does not work well with static images but is highly effective at revealing the distance to a moving target, even when that target is perfectly camouflaged against the background in terms of texture.9PubMed. A Novel Form of Stereo Vision in the Praying Mantis For an ambush predator that cares mostly about striking moving prey, this is an elegant solution.
The neural wiring behind this ability has been traced to projection neurons in the lobula complex of the mantis brain. A majority of the recorded neurons in that region were binocular and had overlapping receptive fields in the frontal visual area, exactly the kind of architecture needed for depth perception.10PubMed Central. Binocular responsiveness of projection neurons of the praying mantis optic lobe in the frontal visual field Separate neurons handle target tracking: cells in the central complex respond to the movement of prey items, increasing their firing rate as the prey moves and decreasing it when the prey stops. Some cells even show both sensory and motor properties, bridging the gap between seeing the prey and turning toward it.11PubMed Central. The Role of Central Complex Neurons in Prey Detection and Tracking in the Freely Moving Praying Mantis (Tenodera sinensis)
Hearing Bats and Smelling Mates
Many mantis species have a single ear, a slit-like structure located on the underside of the thorax between the hind legs. It is tuned to ultrasonic frequencies, and its primary evolutionary purpose appears to be detecting the echolocation calls of bats. Staged encounters between echolocating bats and praying mantises showed that hearing mantises escaped bat attacks about 76% of the time, compared to only 34% for deafened mantises, a 42-percentage-point advantage from the ability to hear an incoming bat.12PubMed. Free-flight encounters between praying mantids (Parasphendale agrionina) and bats (Eptesicus fuscus) Hearing mantises responded by executing power dives to evade the attacking bat.
Chemical senses play a major role in reproduction. Female mantises release pheromones that attract males over long distances. Field experiments with two North American species, Stagmomantis limbata and Tenodera sinensis, showed that females hidden inside covered cages, where males could detect only their chemical signals, still attracted males reliably, while control cages with large non-mantis insects or empty cages did not.13Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Examinations of Female Pheromone use in Two Praying Mantids, Stagmomantis limbata and Tenodera Aridifolia Sinensis (Mantodea: Mantidae) In the Asian species Hierodula patellifera, virgin females adopt a distinctive calling posture that appears to facilitate pheromone release, and males are attracted to virgin females in this posture but not to already-mated females.14Physiological Entomology. Calling behaviour in the female praying mantis, Hierodula patellifera The emerging picture is that chemical signals draw males in from a distance, while visual cues take over at close range.
The Orchid Mantis and Aggressive Mimicry
Some mantis species are camouflaged to blend into foliage, but the orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) of Southeast Asia has taken a radically different approach. Rather than hiding from prey, it attracts them. The orchid mantis resembles a flower so closely that pollinating insects like bees and flies actively approach and land on it. Its color is indistinguishable from that of sympatric flowers as perceived by pollinator vision, and field experiments showed that isolated orchid mantises attracted wild pollinators at a rate even higher than actual flowers did.15PubMed. Pollinator deception in the orchid mantis The mantis then captures these pollinators as prey.
The mechanism works through both color and shape. The mantis has petal-like expansions of exoskeleton on its mid and hind femurs, called femoral lobes, which broaden its silhouette into something flower-shaped. Experiments with artificial mantis models showed that the white flower-like coloration was the single most important factor in attracting pollinators: white models drew significantly more pollinator inspections than brown models.16Ethology. The Roles of Colour and Shape in Pollinator Deception in the Orchid Mantis Hymenopus coronatus This is one of the best-documented cases of aggressive mimicry in any animal, where a predator imitates something attractive to its prey rather than something threatening.
Sexual Cannibalism as a Reproductive Strategy
Sexual cannibalism is real and widespread across mantis species, though it does not happen in every mating encounter. In some species, the female eats the male during or after copulation. The frequency varies by species, population, and how well-fed the female is. What was long debated was whether this behavior has any adaptive value for the male, or is simply a cost he tries to avoid.
Research using isotope-labeled amino acids in the false garden mantid (Pseudomantis albofimbriata) tracked male nutrients through the female’s body. The results showed that cannibalistic females contained significantly more male-derived amino acids in their eggs and reproductive tissues than non-cannibalistic females. Females that consumed their mates also produced more eggs as a result.17PubMed Central. Sexual cannibalism increases male material investment in offspring: quantifying terminal reproductive effort in a praying mantis So the male’s body directly nourishes the next generation. This creates a peculiar situation where being eaten is, in a sense, a form of paternal investment. Females also benefit from male consumption through increased body condition and reproductive output.18PubMed Central. Sexual deception in a cannibalistic mating system? Testing the Femme Fatale hypothesis
Female mantises protect their eggs by encasing them in an ootheca, a foamy protein structure that hardens into a protective shell. The ootheca of the Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) is about 80% protein by dry weight, built primarily from a single dominant protein that accounts for roughly 80% of the total protein content. That protein investment is substantial, and it helps explain why females benefit from consuming as much nutrition as they can, including their mates.
Precision Jumping Without Wings
Juvenile mantises lack wings, yet many species need to jump accurately between stems and branches. High-speed footage of juvenile mantises jumping to targets revealed an unexpectedly sophisticated control system. Before takeoff, the mantis rotates its abdomen to shift its center of mass and regulate spin. Once airborne, it smoothly transfers angular momentum in sequence between the abdomen, the raptorial front legs, and the propulsive hind legs, producing a controlled rotation that lands it precisely on the target.19Current Biology. Mantises Exchange Angular Momentum between Three Rotating Body Parts to Jump Precisely to Targets When researchers experimentally impaired abdominal movements, the mantises lost control: they either missed the target or crashed into it headfirst. The whole system is essentially a mid-air gyroscopic routine performed in under a tenth of a second.
Invasive Species and Ecological Complications
Two of the most widespread mantis species in North America, the Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) and the European mantis (Mantis religiosa), are not native. Both were introduced over a century ago, partly for pest control and partly by accident. Their value as pest predators is frequently overstated. A dietary analysis of these two introduced species in Massachusetts found that they eat arthropods across all ecological roles, including a high proportion of pollinators and parasitoid wasps, not just the herbivorous pest insects people want them to eat.20Food Webs. Diets of two non-native praying mantids (Tenodera sinensis and Mantis religiosa) show consumption of arthropods across all ecological roles A predator that indiscriminately kills beneficial insects along with pests is, at best, a blunt instrument for garden pest management.
Worse, introduced mantises can threaten native mantis species through an unexpected mechanism: reproductive interference. Native male bordered mantises (Stagmomantis limbata) are actually more attracted to the chemical cues of invasive female Chinese mantises than to those of their own females. When these cross-species pairings occur, the native males frequently end up dead, eaten by the larger invasive female with no offspring produced.21PubMed Central. Fatal attraction: sexually cannibalistic invaders attract naive native mantids This is a displacement mechanism that had gone undetected for decades, and it highlights how invasive mantis species can harm native populations beyond simple competition for food.
That said, introduced mantises can still be useful against specific invasive pests. Laboratory trials testing five mantis species against the spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula), a destructive invasive pest in the eastern United States, found that all five readily preyed on adult lanternflies and increased their feeding rates as prey density rose. The Chinese mantis, the largest species tested, consumed the most lanternflies and was the most efficient predator.22PubMed. Predation efficiency of praying mantises as important natural enemies of spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula Whether that predation pressure translates into meaningful population control in the field remains an open question, but the results at least suggest mantises are part of the natural enemy complex keeping lanternfly numbers in check.
Mantis-Inspired Robotics
The mantis sensory and motor toolkit has attracted attention from engineers. Early work in the late 1990s used formal models of mantis behavior, derived from behavioral and neuroscience data, to control a hexapod robot equipped with a color vision system.23Robotics and Autonomous Systems. Behavioral models of the praying mantis as a basis for robotic behavior The idea was that mantis sensorimotor routines, being simple enough to model formally but effective enough to catch live prey, could generate useful robotic behaviors without requiring the kind of heavy computational processing typical of machine-vision systems.
More recently, the mantis’s combination of compound-eye optics and stereoscopic depth perception has inspired a new generation of artificial eyes. Researchers built stereoscopically coupled artificial compound eyes that mimic the mantis visual system, achieving spatiotemporal object sensing and tracking in three-dimensional space with a wide field of view. They processed the visual data at the edge of the system using neuromorphic hardware and federated split learning, minimizing latency and power consumption.24PubMed. Stereoscopic artificial compound eyes for spatiotemporal perception in three-dimensional space The mantis visual system is interesting to engineers precisely because it solves a hard problem, judging distance to a moving target, with a brain containing fewer than a million neurons. Any algorithm that efficient is worth copying.