I saw a tiny praying mantis on our kitchen door frame this week. I was surprised to see it so late in the year, but the hot summer and the recent rains have confused the local flora and fauna.

I remembered taking photos of some a few years ago and dug through my archives to find these from 2007.

They are each about 3 inches long. I think they’re the coolest-looking, most alien-in-appearance insects. Their triangular heads, bulging eyes, and spiked arms all contribute to their oddness. In addition, they are good leaf mimics. Their wings are leaf-shaped and even have leaf-like veins in them. I had only seen green ones but they also come in a gray/brown.

I thought the common name was Preying Mantis, because they are predatory, but Wikipedia says it’s Praying Mantis because of their “prayer-like stance”. They belong to an Order called Mantodea which contains 2,200 species in 15 families worldwide. Their closest relatives are cockroaches and termites.

Their diet consists mainly of insects, but they’ve also been known to eat lizards, frogs, birds, snakes, and rodents. They make a good biological pest control for gardeners.