Of all the orders of insects, few are as captivating or deadly as the mantises. Mantises are insects belonging to the order Mantodea, which includes around 2,400 species. Their closest relatives include termites and cockroaches. You can find them throughout the world, although they primarily live in tropical or temperate habitats. They also go by the name praying mantis due to their upright posture and folded forearms. These forelegs are large and powerful, which helps a mantis catch prey. Many people also associate them with boxers, as they look as if they have their arms raised in a fighter’s stance. Some early civilizations revered mantises and considered them to possess special powers. Due to their interesting appearance and unique behavior, people often keep these insects as pets.
In this article, we’ll attempt to put this question to bed by examining the diet of the praying mantis. We’ll start by exploring what praying mantises like to eat. Then we’ll discuss how they find and hunt for food. Next, we’ll compare what praying mantises eat in the wild versus what they eat as pets. Finally, we’ll end with a brief discussion about what baby praying mantises eat.
Chinese Mantis: An Overview
The Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) is a species of praying mantis native to China and other parts of Asia and islands of islands off of mainland Asia. At around 1896 this species was accidentally introduced by a nurseryman at Mt. Airy, Pennsylvania. It is typically longer than most other praying mantises reaching just over 11 centimeters, and is the largest mantis species in North America (spread throughout much of southern New England, and the Northeast United States). Its color can vary from overall green to brown with a green lateral stripe on the borders of each side of the front wings in the brown color form. In low light the eyes of the mantis appear black, but in daylight appear to be clear, matching the color of the head. Chinese mantids and narrow-winged mantids of the same color morph are slightly different in color and Chinese mantids are usually larger than Tenodera angustipennis which were introduced to the United States of America as well. One way of telling Tenodera sinensis and Tenodera angustipennis apart is by looking at the spot in between their front legs. If it is yellow then it is a Chinese mantis but if it is orange then it is a narrow-winged mantis. The female can produce several spherical ootheca roughly the size of a table tennis ball, containing up to 400 eggs. Chinese mantids are a common pet for mantis enthusiasts, and oothecae can be purchased from plant nurseries across the US. They are notable for quickly adapting to the presence of humans. The Chinese mantis should be kept in a terrarium roughly three times its body size. The Chinese mantis is an aggressive carnivore that will tackle and eat large insects. In captivity the Chinese mantis' diet can consists primarily of cockroaches, moths, butterflies, grasshoppers, crickets and spiders. Mantids drink dew from leaves, so a gentle misting every other day is required. In the terrarium, mantids require sticks and other foliage for climbing and molting.
What Do Praying Mantises Eat?
Praying mantises will eat just about anything they can catch including insects, birds, and fish. Praying mantises are carnivores, meaning that they predominantly eat other animals. Generally speaking, they mostly prey on other arthropods. While they mostly eat prey smaller than themselves, praying mantises are generalist hunters. On occasion, they will also attack larger prey, including some that are larger than them in terms of length and weight.
The diet of a praying mantis will vary depending on the environment it lives in and the prey that is available. In addition, larger species of mantises will have access to more food compared to smaller species. Given these differences, an exhaustive list of all the foods that mantises eat would be quite long. That said, there is some common prey that most mantises frequently target. As such, we’ve collected a list of 10 foods that praying mantises like to eat.
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Praying mantises are found in many regions around the world, with the highest diversity of species found in tropical and subtropical regions. In North America, praying mantises are found throughout the continent, including in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. In Europe, praying mantises are found in many countries including the UK, France, Germany, and Italy, among others.
Praying mantises can live in a wide range of environments and habitats, from deserts to rainforests, and from the ground to trees. The lifespan of a praying mantis can vary depending on the species, but most adult praying mantises live for about 6-8 months. The lifespan of a praying mantis can vary greatly depending on the species, as well as environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and availability of food. Some species of praying mantises can live for several months as adults, while others may only live for a few weeks. The lifespan of a praying mantis also depends on the stage of its life cycle. It is important to note that in the wild, the majority of praying mantises do not survive to reach adulthood because of predation and other environmental factors.
Hunting and Prey Detection
While praying mantises possess similar senses as humans, they rely on some more than others to find food. In particular, mantises mostly rely on their amazing sense of sight to locate prey. Unlike most other insects, praying mantises have 5 forward-facing eyes. Their binocular 3D vision, known as stereopsis, enables them to detect depth and distance effectively. This ability aids them greatly in their hunt for prey.
Meanwhile, the rest of their senses aren’t nearly as well developed. Mantises mostly use their sense of smell to help them detect the pheromones of power mantises. Additionally, their sense of hearing is not used to find prey, but rather to avoid predators. For example, they can use their ear to detect the echolocation sounds of bats, a common mantis predator.
By and large, praying mantises are ambush hunters that rely on stealth to catch their prey unawares. You’ve likely seen a praying mantis standing very still with its arms raised up in a fighter’s stance. Mantises adopt this posture to confuse other animals into thinking that they’re simply a wayward stick. They’re aided in this by their natural camouflage, with many species appearing light green, brown, or gray.
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Once its target gets close enough, a praying mantis will then lunge forward rapidly. It will grab its target with its spiny forelegs, then pull it in close before proceeding to eat its prey alive. That said, some mantises opt to use a different tactic when hunting. For example, some ground mantises will run after their prey and chase them down. Praying mantises will even eat other mantises, especially during the mating season.
Wild vs. Captive Diets
The types of food that praying mantises eat in the wild vary depending on the habitat where they live. Given that mantises live on every continent except Antarctica, they have access to a wide amount of prey. However, there is some common prey that mantises will frequently target.
Overall, insects make up the bulk of a praying mantis’s diet. They eat many different types of insects, including both flying and ground-dwelling species. Some examples include crickets, grasshoppers, butterflies, moths, spiders, and beetles. Smaller species and young specimens will target things like aphids, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, and caterpillars. Mantises will also eat worms, grubs, and insect larvae. Large species are also capable of taking down larger prey. They will eat small frogs, lizards, snakes, and mice. Additionally, some species will attack and eat small birds and fish. Pray mantises have been known to eat mice, lizards, and even snakes. Tenodera sinensis feeds primarily on other insects, though adult females in particular sometimes catches small vertebrates. For example, they have been documented as feeding on small reptiles, amphibians and even small species of hummingbirds. Like most mantids, they are known to be cannibalistic.
Praying mantises make popular pets due to their relatively long lives and interesting behaviors. If you keep a pet praying mantis, you’ll want to feed it a balanced diet. Generally speaking, mantises prefer to eat live prey. As such, live insects are going to make up the bulk of a pet mantis’s diet. As a best practice, live food should be removed from a mantis’s tank if not eaten within an hour. Crickets and grasshoppers will make up the bulk of a pet mantis’s diet. However, if your pet mantis is small or quite young, you can start it off on aphids, fruit flies, and other tiny prey. Meanwhile, larger insects can also eat things like cockroaches, beetles, and flies. Although some people feed their pet mantis raw meat, this is not recommended. In captivity the Chinese mantis' diet can consists primarily of cockroaches, moths, butterflies, grasshoppers, crickets and spiders.
Feeding Nymphs
Baby praying mantises - or nymphs - usually prey on aphids, leafhoppers, and fruit flies. Also known as nymphs, baby pet mantises tend to eat smaller insects than adult mantises. As soon as they’re born, nymphs are able to hunt for their own food. They quickly set out on their own, as they are at risk of getting eaten by their own mother if they stick around too long. Baby mantises will eat just about anything they can catch, which includes other mantises. Some of the most common foods eaten by baby mantises include aphids, leafhoppers, and fruit flies. On average, a baby mantis will eat around once every 3 to 4 days. As a mantis grows older, it will be able to accommodate larger food.
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Fruit flies are great for them as they're small. But they will grow out of them soon. Definitely start with fruit flies and not crickets. The crickets might be too big for them and the crickets could actually harm the mantis. Once too big for fruit flies, try house flies or if they're big enough, blue bottled flies. I feed mine Blue bottled flies and I was able to feed them these once they are about 1 month old. This all depends on size though, make sure the fly is not more than half the mantids size. I like mealworms, but you have to hand feed them because if you just drop the worm in the terrarium, most likely it will never be eaten because they don't move around much. If you're up for it, you could also cut the worm in half to make it smaller for the mantis, and it will still move. Basically anything they would eat in the wild. I feed my Chinese wild caught moths and skippers, since we don't use any pesticides. Getting blue bottle fly larvae is the best way to go. They love flies and can even eat the larvae by hand feeding. If the worm gets away or falls in the terrarium, it will just hatch into an adult fly in a few days! I used to feed crickets but I noticed they started squirting water (clear; odorless) after eating them. I think this can be from too much moisture but I'm far from 100% sure on that one.
Chinese Mantis and Humans
There are over 2,000 species of praying mantises and although they are dangerous to other insects, praying mantises are the only insects that will interact with humans and are quite friendly toward them. They are known to voluntarily stop on human hands and will proceed to walk all over them. While they do bite in instances where they are aggressively approached, this is extremely rare and generally doesn’t do any damage or harm. Mantises are notorious for being comfortable with human handlers and will allow you to hold them once you have earned their trust. Due to the size of a human, all mantises may at first view you as a potential threat, but they can learn to trust you over time.