What is special about praying mantis?

Praying mantis, a large group of insects found in tropical and temperate habitats.

Most of them are ambush predators. It uses its spiked forelegs to grasp its prey. Moths, crickets, grasshoppers and flies are its favourite food. But larger species in its family (mantidae) even prey on lizards.

It earned its common name – praying mantis, because of the way its front legs are bent and held together at an angle that suggests the position of prayer.

It has triangular heads on along thorax. Did you know it can turn its head 180 degrees to scan its surroundings?

Try to sneak up on a praying mantis, and you may be startled when it looks over its shoulder at you. No other insect can do so. Praying mantids have a flexible joint between the head and prothorax that enables them to swivel their heads. This ability, along with their rather humanoid faces and long, grasping forelegs, endears them to even the most entomophobic people among us.

The female praying mantis deposits her eggs on a twig or stem in the fall ?and then protects them with a Styrofoam-like substance she secretes from her body. This forms a protective egg case, or ootheca, in which her offspring will develop over the winter. Mantid egg cases are easy to spot in the winter when leaves have fallen from shrubs and trees. But be forewarned! If you bring an overwintering ootheca into your warm home, you may find your house teeming with tiny mantids.

Picture Credit : Google

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