Mantidae

There are about 2000 species of praying mantis ( the appearance of the folded front arms is said to resemble a person at prayer) . They are large , slow moving predators with elongated femurs on the front legs ,that have a groove lined with spines into which the tibia fits. They use this to grip prey. The word mantis means " diviner" . They often resemble vegetation as camouflage both to avoid being eaten , but also to creep up on prey. If disturbed they will raise their wings in a threatening manner -often with bright "startle" colours.

The females often decapitate the males before copulation as this removes the inhibitory reflexes that control copulation. In the wild the males are eaten about 30% of the time (good source of nutrition for the eggs) . The female then lays about 200 eggs in a cocoon (ootheca). The nymphs look like the adults but have no wings. They can be cannibalistic.

They are related to cockroaches

They can turn their heads 180 degrees .Some species have a single ear on the underside of the abdomen . This can detect a bats ultrasound allowing the Mantis to evade capture whilst flying by dropping , rolling and dive bombing away .