# About the Mantodea **URL:** https://reptilecommunity.com/t/about-the-mantodea/49 **Category:** Mantodea **Created:** [July 18, 2025, 12:53pm UTC](https://reptilecommunity.com/t/about-the-mantodea/49 "2025-07-18T12:53:16Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![ReptileCommunity](https://reptilecommunity.com/user_avatar/reptilecommunity.com/reptilecommunity/32/3_2.png) [@ReptileCommunity](https://reptilecommunity.com/u/ReptileCommunity) #### Post date: [July 18, 2025, 12:53pm UTC](https://reptilecommunity.com/t/about-the-mantodea/49/1 "2025-07-18T12:53:16Z")
**Mantises** are an [order](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_(biology)) ( **Mantodea** ) of [insects](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect) that contains [over 2,400 species in about 460 genera](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mantis_genera_and_species) in 33 families. The largest family is the [Mantidae](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantidae) (“mantids”). Mantises are distributed worldwide in [temperate](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate) and [tropical](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical) habitats. They have triangular heads with bulging eyes supported on flexible necks. Their elongated bodies may or may not have wings, but all mantodeans have forelegs that are greatly enlarged and adapted for catching and gripping prey; their upright posture, while remaining stationary with forearms folded, resembling a praying posture, has led to the common name **praying mantis**. The closest relatives of mantises are [termites](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite) and [cockroaches](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach) ([Blattodea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blattodea)), which are all within the [superorder](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superorder) [Dictyoptera](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictyoptera). Mantises are sometimes confused with stick insects ([Phasmatodea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasmatodea)), other elongated insects such as [grasshoppers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper) ([Orthoptera](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthoptera)), or other more distantly related insects with [raptorial](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptorial) forelegs such as mantisflies ([Mantispidae](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantispidae)). Mantises are mostly [ambush predators](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambush_predator), but a few ground-dwelling species are found actively pursuing their prey. They normally live for about a year. In cooler climates, the adults lay eggs in autumn, then die. The eggs are protected by their hard capsules and hatch in the spring. Females sometimes practice [sexual cannibalism](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_cannibalism), eating their mates after copulation. Mantises were considered to have [supernatural powers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_powers) by early civilizations, including [ancient Greece](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece), [ancient Egypt](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt), and [Assyria](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria). A cultural [trope](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trope_(literature)) popular in [cartoons](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartoon) imagines the female mantis as a _[femme fatale](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femme_fatale)_. Mantises are among the insects most commonly kept as [pets](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet). ## Etymology The name _mantodea_ is formed from the Ancient Greek words [μάντις](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BC%CE%AC%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B9%CF%82) (_mantis_) meaning “prophet”, and [εἶδος](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%B5%E1%BC%B6%CE%B4%CE%BF%CF%82) (_eidos_) meaning “form” or “type”. It was coined in 1838 by the German entomologist [Hermann Burmeister](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Burmeister).[[3]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-3)[[4]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-OED-4) The name “mantid” properly refers only to members of the family [Mantidae](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantidae), which was, historically, the only family in the order. The other common name, praying mantis, applied to any species in the order[[5]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-5) (though in Europe mainly to _[Mantis religiosa](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_religiosa)_), comes from the typical [prayer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer)-like posture these mantises adopt when their forelegs are folded.[[6]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-6)[[7]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-NatGeo-7) The vernacular plural “mantises” (used in this article) was confined largely to the US, with “mantids” predominantly used as the plural in the UK and elsewhere, until the family Mantidae was further split in 2002; at present, only some 80 out of 430 known genera are mantids, the rest are in other families.[[8]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-8)[[9]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-Ehrmann-9) Over 2,400 species of mantis in about 430 genera are recognized.[[10]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-10) They are predominantly found in tropical regions, but some live in temperate areas.[[11]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-Prete1999-11)[[12]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-12) The [systematics](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematics) of mantises have long been disputed. Mantises, along with stick insects ([Phasmatodea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasmatodea)), were once placed in the order [Orthoptera](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthoptera) with the cockroaches (now [Blattodea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blattodea)) and ice crawlers (now [Grylloblattodea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grylloblattodea)). Kristensen (1991) combined the Mantodea with the cockroaches and [termites](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite) into the order [Dictyoptera](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictyoptera), suborder Mantodea.[[13]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-Costa-13)[[14]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#cite_note-Capinera2008-14)