European mantis

The mantis eats other insects.

It waits without moving. When a bug comes close, it grabs it with its spiky front legs. Snap!

The European mantis is a carnivore: it eats other animals, mostly insects. It is an ambush hunter. Instead of chasing its food, it stays perfectly still, hidden by its color, and waits for an insect to come close.

Then it strikes fast with its front legs, which are lined with sharp spikes that hold the prey tight. Grasshoppers are a favorite, and it can even grab insects as they fly past. It also eats caterpillars, butterflies, moths and flies.

Mantis religiosa is a voracious ambush predator. It waits motionless, relying on camouflage, then strikes with raptorial forelegs whose inner surfaces carry rows of spines that pierce and hold prey. It can seize flying insects, and grasshoppers are a frequent catch; Tennessee State University also lists caterpillars, butterflies, flies and moths.

Its diet is broad enough that it has been used against pests: it has been released for biological control, and studies have examined it as a predator of the red-legged grasshopper. It will also eat other mantises, including its own kind.

Mantises like to be alone.

They sit very, very still among the plants. When they do move, they move slowly and carefully.

European mantises live alone. Adults meet only to mate in late summer. Most of the time a mantis sits very still among plants, almost invisible.

When a male finds a female, he moves toward her very slowly and freezes whenever she notices him. Mantises also have a sense many people never guess: a single ear that can hear very high sounds, even ones too high for people to hear.

Adults are solitary and interact mainly to mate in late summer. Mating is cautious: the University of Colorado Museum describes males approaching slowly and freezing when noticed, then mounting the female from a distance.

The species is well known for sexual cannibalism, in which a female sometimes eats the male during or after courtship. In a field study, Lawrence (1992) found that this happened in about 30 percent of matings, so most males survive. Scientists have studied mantis mating behavior at least since Kenneth Roeder's experiments, published in 1935.

There are lots of European mantises.

They live in many countries. Sunny meadows with tall plants are good homes for them.

The European mantis is widespread and common in many places, including much of North America. But in some parts of Europe it has become rare. In Germany it is listed as endangered, probably because the meadows and grasslands it needs have been lost.

In North America it is not native, but scientists say it does not seem to cause much harm. It has even been used to help control insect pests.

The IUCN Red List assesses the species as Least Concern worldwide (assessed in 2015, published in 2016), and it is common in much of its introduced North American range. Yet the University of Colorado Museum notes that it is listed as endangered in Germany, likely because of habitat loss.

In North America it is an introduced species. Tennessee State University's invasive species database considers it to pose no current ecological threat, as it is solitary and does little or no damage to plants, and it has been used in biological control. Researchers continue to study how and when it arrived, and how cold winters limit where its egg cases can survive.