Pest status: Praying mantises are important predators of many insect pests, and are disinclined to enter houses. Upon hatching and emerging from holes in the mid-line of the egg case, nymphs may hang from the ootheca on chitinous threads until they complete their first moult, and may then try and eat their siblings or scatter in search of other small prey. In colder climates, eggs will be laid in autumn and hatch in spring, but may be laid all year round in tropical climates. Some overseas species will stand guard over the eggs, but Australian species are left alone by the mother. The burying mantis, Sphodropoda tristis, digs a pit in dry sand, lays her eggs, and refills the hole, but most species will attach their eggs to branches, twigs, or any suitable hard surface, which may include fly screens, walls, doors or furniture. The foam soon hardens and darkens, and may become almost woody in texture. Habitat: After mating (which can be a fatal experience for the males in some species) the mantis will lay 10 to several hundred eggs in a mass resembling shaving foam the number, size, shape and colour dependent on the species. Miomantis caffra, the Springbok mantis, is a South African species found in Melbourne, at least as early as 2009 and may spread elsewhere in Australia Orthodera ministralis, the garden mantis, and Archimantis species, large brown mantises, are common. Geographic distribution: Praying mantises are found in all parts of Australia, including most suburban gardens. Their eggs, however, are laid in hard cases attached to any suitable surface, and depending on species may be narrow and under a centimeter long, to large stiff foamy masses several centimeters long. There are approximately 160 species known in Australia.Äescription: Praying mantises are well-known enough to need little description, and are named for their upright stance and folded grasping limbs. Scientific name(s): Any insect in the Order Mantodea, with over 2,400 species in about 460 genera and 33 families. Common name: Praying Mantis, also known as mantids
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