European Mantis

Mantis religiosa — the European mantis — is the type species for the entire praying mantis order (Mantodea) and the species that gave English its 'praying mantis' common name. Carl Linnaeus named the species Mantis religiosa in his 1758 Systema Naturae, choosing the species epithet 'religiosa' for the characteristic posture of the raptorial forelegs: at rest, the front pair of legs is held folded together in front of the body in a posture that resembles a person praying with hands clasped. The species is widespread across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and western Asia, and has been introduced to North America (since 1899) and parts of South America. Adults are 5-7.5 cm long, typically green or tan (color matches the surrounding vegetation), with three- to seven-segmented antennae and the family-typical raptorial forelegs adapted for prey capture. The species is a generalist ambush predator of small flying and crawling insects (flies, butterflies, grasshoppers, spiders, occasional small lizards). Sexual cannibalism is well-documented — females sometimes (not always) bite the head off the male during or after copulation. The decapitation does not stop mating: as in the related Chinese mantis, removal of the male's brain releases inhibitory neural input and the male's body continues mating reflexively, often with INCREASED sperm transfer rate. The frequency of sexual cannibalism in European mantis is variable across populations and depends on female nutritional state — well-fed females cannibalize less often than starved ones. Mantis religiosa is the foundational subject of nearly every mantis biology study from the 19th century onward, and is the model species in modern mantis behavioral ecology research.