# Preying Mantis **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2005, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014 "2005-03-24T06:28:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/1 "2005-03-24T06:28:16Z")
Is it Preying Mantis or Praying Mantis? Anyway is is baby season here and they are all over the place. Often I see one inside and mean to catch it and put it outside but I get distracted. 2-3 days later when I finally get round to catching him/her, it has turned brown and seem to have difficulty flying. Why? Do Preying Matises need sunlight to stay green? I have never noticed any other inscect changing colour and looking “sickly” after a couple of days inside. What makes Preying Mantises different? ---
**Author:** ![Rusalka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Rusalka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rusalka)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/2 "2005-03-24T06:42:35Z")
You’d look sickly too if someone put you in a cave with no food for a few days. 😃 Seriously, it’s probably because it can’t find any food in your house. The insects they eat usually live outside on greenery. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/3 "2005-03-24T06:48:55Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > Is it Preying Mantis or Praying Mantis? > > Anyway is is baby season here and they are all over the place. Often I see one inside and mean to catch it and put it outside but I get distracted. 2-3 days later when I finally get round to catching him/her, it has turned brown and seem to have difficulty flying. > > Why? Do Preying Matises need sunlight to stay green? I have never noticed any other inscect changing colour and looking “sickly” after a couple of days inside. What makes Preying Mantises different? My dictionary says “praying mantis.” Probably from the way their front legs are held together as if praying. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/4 "2005-03-24T07:04:37Z")
> [@Rusalka](#): > > Seriously, it’s probably because it can’t find any food in your house. The insects they eat usually live outside on greenery. Believe me there is food galore. No window sceens here. Moths, mozzies, spiders and flies cruise the joint. It is only the poor Praying Mantises (thanks **David Simmons** that seem to change colour and look ill. I run a beastie friendly enviroment…well I don’t like flies but I don’t squish anyone else. I actuallly LOVE Praying Mantises. I’d like to keep them around longer. It’s almost as if they have some odd chlorophyll thing going on. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/5 "2005-03-24T07:39:14Z")
Apparently in some species the color change is an adaptive response to environmental humidity. The youngsters you collect in your household are possibly reacting to what might be a higher relative household aridity compared to outdoors and turning brown after molting ( which they do repeatedly when young and growing ). Typically the color is fixed after the final molt. In the wild this would be cued to wet vs. dry years - dry years = more dead foliage = brown being a better adaptive camouflage. As to the sickliness, couldn’t tell you. Maybe it is _so_ dry in your house it is interfering with the molt. Maybe you have an abundance of larger prey items about, but not a lot of small ones. Maybe something chemical. Maybe they are just faking ;). - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/6 "2005-03-24T10:43:36Z")
It _is_ the same praying mantis, isn’t it? They do come in two flavours here, the regular green ones and the fat brown South African ones which seem to be taking over. Little Case has a full catch-and-release program going: any mantises which make it inside have to be gently caught and placed on a leaf for him to take outside “to their mummies and daddies”. Same goes for wetas. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/7 "2005-03-24T12:24:34Z")
Yeah it is the same ones. Leave one inside for a couple of days, Little Case might find it interesting. He/She is much braver then me! Takes much broom work and squealing for me to release a weta. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/8 "2005-03-24T14:49:54Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Little Case has a full catch-and-release program going: any mantises which make it inside have to be gently caught and placed on a leaf for him to take outside “to their mummies and daddies”. It’s best if he doesn’t put juveniles anywhere near an adult, since mantises are cannibalistic. (Seeing mummy eat daddy after mating might be particularly traumantic.) ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/9 "2005-03-24T18:09:48Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It’s best if he doesn’t put juveniles anywhere near an adult, since mantises are cannibalistic. Would both of them be around at the same time of year? I thought praying mantises had a fairly well-defined seasonal life cycle. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/10 "2005-03-24T19:00:37Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Would both of them be around at the same time of year? I thought praying mantises had a fairly well-defined seasonal life cycle. You’re probably right for temperate zone mantises. I’m not sure how much the generations overlap in other species. The juvenile mantises, I guess, don’t have to worry about being eaten by mummy and daddy, since they died six months ago. They do, however, have to worry about being eaten by bro and sis. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/11 "2005-03-24T22:26:32Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > (Seeing mummy eat daddy after mating might be particularly traumantic.) Pun intended? They’re pretty fully developed now, since we’re into autumn, so his delicate sensibilities ought to be spared. The females should be laying quite soon, which is always fun if he can find one: his delicate sensibilities are pretty resilient when it extends to entomology. **calm kiwi** , if you’re having weta problems, he’s available for hire at a reasonable hourly rate. ---
**Author:** ![Fritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Fritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fritz)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/12 "2005-03-25T03:23:08Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > **calm kiwi** , if you’re having weta problems, he’s available for hire at a reasonable hourly rate. What’s a weta? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/13 "2005-03-25T03:33:03Z")
> [@Fritz](#): > > What’s a weta? It’s rather like a [giant cricket](http://weta.boarsnest.net/). ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preying-mantis/296014/14 "2005-03-25T09:15:37Z")
What **Colibri** said, except that they look like God placed H.R. Giger in charge of cricket design after a bad night on the peyote - all dark glossy brown, with bulging eyes, long antennae, giant mandibles, enormous spiky back legs and huge ovipositors - think evil-looking spikes and prongs on every available surface: they’re quite harmless, but they can grow pretty big {especially giant wetas}, and they scare the shit out of some people. They’re quite iconic here in NZ: as a bit of film trivia, Peter Jackson named his design and effects department “Weta” in their honour.