Order Mantodea, Family Mantidae

 Common names: mantid, praying mantis

Identifying characteristics for the Mantodea include:

• Front legs spined and modified for grasping and holding prey.
• Prothorax and procoxae prolonged; middle and hind coxae shorter.
• Tarsi 5 segmented.
• Head in frontal view triangular.
• Antennae short, filiform.
• Similar looking phasmids and hemipterans lack the head shape, mouthparts, and prothoracic characters that distinguish the mantids.

• Worldwide the order Mantodea has about 2000 species in 8 families. The 20 North American species are all in the family Mantidae.
• Many taxonomists lump mantids and cockroaches together in the order Dictyoptera.

• Dictyoptera Cockroaches and Mantids -- Gordon's Insect World
• Key to Praying Mantids of the World to the level of genera
• Mantis Study Group
• Mantodea on the Arizona Tree of Life.
• Praying Mantis Photos - beautiful pictures with descriptive text. Check out the photographer's other web pages, too.
• Wondrous praying mantis - notes on a terrarium project

• Page 86 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Pages 102-107 in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
• Pages 227-228 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.
• Pages 367-369 in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.