Praying Mantis

Date Found: October 17, 2011

Common Name: Praying Mantis

Scientific Name: Mantis religiosa

Found: On the screen of our back door, Hampstead, MD


Fun Facts:

It eats caterpillars, moths, flies, mosquitoes, bees.

The Praying Mantis can be found in meadows, on foliage and flowers in the Eastern US up to Ontario.

Mantids lay their egg sacks on sticks and twigs that are exposed above the snow. When the weather warms up in the late spring, all the eggs hatch. The tiny nymphs are carried away on the wind.