Finally found a mantis fly!

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Mantis Man13

Mantis Man13

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I have always wanted to see a mantis fly up close. Finally, I saw the rare sight today when I was catching some flies for my Orchid mantises. I saw what looked like a lacewing and until closer inspection I realized it looked like a mantis! I knew I had finally found one! It is a little over a centimeter long and has little mantis claws and a mantis face and neck! Tell me if you guys have ever seen these insects before and also if you can keep them as a pet like a mantis?

IMG_2491.JPG

 
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3 years of being interested in mantises and i havent seen a wild one :blink: . But i guess i still have to wait for the time to come!

 
Yeah, they don't live long. They aren't limited to fruitflies and can tackle prey larger than themselves.

 
yah lol there should be a culture for us so we could have some of these cool insects regularly! Do you guys know why these flies mimic mantises? they look so alike and even have fully functioning raptorial arms!

 
Mantis fly larvae are parasitic on the egg sacs of spiders, so probably not practical to culture. If they would eat the parasteatoda eggsacs that abound in garages and basements maybe, but unfortunately they are specialists on certain spiders only. Not sure what kind of spider the green species likes but i read that the paper wasp mimicking species prefers wolf spider eggsacs.

Oh, and I believe they do not mimic mantises. They're just an example of convergent evolution. They're really isn't any reason to mimic a mantis, they aren't toxic and most insectivores relish them.

 
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Mantidflies are really interesting creatures. I remember a couple of my friends found two while we were out on a collecting trip and they were awesome! I wonder if they're still alive... Anyway these guys love fruitflies and small dying invertebrates. Don't expect them to live too long and good luck.

 
My mantis fly escaped when I tried to put it in a cage... :mad: . It was lightning fast! I have never seen a insect fly this fast! It flew somewhere in the house so it will be impossible to find. Now I will never be able to learn more about their behavior. I can barely find ANY information on the web! Whenever I look up mantis fly it just shows up with mantis.

 
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You should look around the windowsills, most flying insects will be attracted by light.

There's fairly little information available on mantidflies, but you can find some by using the correct terms. You'll find information on them by searching for the correct common name of Mantidfly or by searching by the family name Mantispidae.

There is information available about rearing Mantispa viridis. Their larvae feed on spider eggs and they have been reared in laboratory conditions.

 
Sorry to hear about the little escape artist :(

But they are generally easy to care for (as adults)... as aforementioned they wont tackle prey much larger than a fruit fly (depending on the Mantisfly species). When I was in Massachusetts a few years back I caught 3 of them (I think they were all female, but never confirmed it). I was letting them walk on my hands and one of them flew a short distance and landed in the yard. It was a wasp mimic species, like this

mantidfly-101-large.jpg
Maybe that quick flight is evident in that species you had? Regardless...I hope you find him/her again :) ...however they are rather difficult to raise in captivity as their life cycle is a bit of a complex one. The female lays eggs near each other... then the larvae hatch and seek a female spider. Once successful, they hitch a ride wrapped around her pedicel (waist) (the area between her abdomen and cephalothorax)....from there, they'll stay attached until she lays her eggs (in an eggsac). From there, the lucky larva will leave and then enter the eggsac and eat all of the eggs. From there it ecloses into its third form. This third form leaves the sac and then heads upwards. Next, it molts again into its adult form as a mantisfly. So the hardest part is finding the egg sacs for each larva. (and they have to be big enough egg sacs so they can reach their third stage)... agentA found a female a few years ago that laid eggs (looks pretty similar to your individual)... here is his thread. And here is a video on mostly everything after leaving the female spider:

 
Did you notice the way they move they're antennae up and down like scissors? That's my favorite part about them.

They seem to vary in size according to the size of the spider egg sac they developed in. I've seen one that was almost an inch long and another that was scarcely larger than a mosquito.

 

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