Praying Mantises
The praying mantis is an ambush predator that can turn its head to watch you, strikes in a fraction of a second, and sometimes eats its mate. These guides cover its hunting, biology, and behavior.
Skilled hunters that take pests and pollinators alike, so the garden benefit depends on what else lives there.
Size
10 to 150 mm
varies by species
Diet
Live prey of all kinds
pests, bees, each other
Habitat
Shrubs and flower heads
waiting in ambush
Vision
True 3D depth
unique among insects
Eggs
A frothy case (ootheca)
hardens on a stem
Life cycle
No grub or pupa: a mantis hatches as a miniature hunter and simply grows up.
-
Egg case A frothy ootheca laid on a stem in fall, hardening to shield the eggs through winter.
-
Nymph Dozens hatch at once as tiny wingless mantises, already hunting, sometimes each other.
-
Adult It molts through summer, gains wings at the last, and reaches full ambush size by fall.
A mantis will sit dead still on a stem longer than I can hold a lens on it, then strike faster than the shutter. They're mesmerizing, but they are not selective: I've watched one take a honeybee off a flower. An ally with an asterisk.
Sam Fielding · field note · about Sam
Typical season
Most visible late summer into fall as they reach full size; egg cases overwinter.
Often confused with
Stick Insects
Also slow and twiggy, but a stick insect has no grabbing forelegs and eats only leaves
A praying mantis can rotate its head 180 degrees, the only insect able to look back over its own shoulder.
