Alice Springs Mantodea >
— see Alice Springs: Orthoptera – Orthopteroids | Bees | Beetles | Insects ◦
The Mantids in the order Mantodea, are similar to the order Orthoptera, having four wings (2 pairs), but they differ in that the Mantodea have grasping front legs instead of jumping hind legs of the Orthoptera. The males of most species of Mantodea are winged while many females have either reduced wings or no wings at all.

The Orthopteroid orders include Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, and allies), Mantodea (mantises), Phasmatodea (stick and leaf insects), Blattodea (cockroaches and termites), Embioptera (webspinners), Dermaptera (earwigs), Plecoptera (stoneflies), Zoraptera (angel insects), and the non-Australian Notoptera (ice crawlers and gladiators).

Another group of insects, sometimes mistakenly included in the group Mantises are the “Leaf and Stick Insects”, order Phasmatodea, although they are part of the general group known as Orthopteroid.

The following Spiny Bark Mantis pictured here was about 3 cm in length on was on a eucalypt tree.


This page is a work in progress…
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Hexapoda
- Class: Insecta
- Informal: Pterygotes
- Order: Mantodea
- Family:
- Amorphoscelidae
- Hymenopodidae
- Liturgusidae
- Mantidae
- Miomantidae Westwood, 1889
Footnote & References
- Mantodea, Mantids, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/MANTODEA
- Mantises (Order Mantodea), iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/48112-Mantodea
- Mantodea: praying mantids, Insects and their Allies, CSIRO, https://www.ento.csiro.au/education/insects/mantodea.html
Alice Springs Orthoptera – OrthopteroidsAcrida conica Common Bandwing Grasshopper (Pycnostictus seriatus) Coryphistes sp (Bark Mimic Grasshopper) Garden Mantis Giant Grasshopper Spur-throated Locust Variable Stropis (Stropis nigrovitellina) Woodger’s Gumleaf Katydid (Terpandrus)
Alice Springs InsectsAntlion (Heoclisis fundata) Ants (Formicidae) Bees Beetles Index Blattodea Butterflies & Moths (Lepidopterans) Cicadas Coleoptera Diptera Dragonflies Mantodea – Mantises Orthoptera – Orthopteroids True Bugs (Heteroptera) Wasps
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