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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
The order Mantodea (which includes the praying mantis) consists of approximatively 2,300 species, of which a majority are in the family Mantidae. The closest relatives of mantids are the orders Isoptera (termites) and Blattodea (cockroaches), and these three groups together are sometimes ranked as an order rather than a superorder.
Mantids are notable for their large size and nimble reflexes. Their diet usually consists of living insects, including flies and aphids; larger species have been known to prey on small lizards, frogs, birds, snakes, and even rodents. Most mantids are ambush predators, waiting for prey to stray too near to them. The mantis then lashes out at remarkable speed. Some ground and bark species, however, pursue their prey rather quickly. A mantid's prey is caught and held securely with its grasping, spiked forelegs.
Mantids are masters of camouflage and make use of protective coloration to blend in with the foliage, both to avoid predators themselves, and to better snare their victims. Some species in Africa and Australia are able to turn black after a molt following a fire in the region to blend in with the fire ravaged landscape (fire melanism). In addition to this adaptation, they have adapted to not only blend with the foliage, but to mimic it, appearing as leaves, sticks, blades of grass, flowers or even stones. Their diet and coloration frequently change as the mantid grows; mantids are among the hemimetabolic insects - those whose immature stages are similar to the adults, primarily differing in the lack of wings and functional reproductive organs |
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