Do the folks here really not know the rule behind this? I guess it's obscure, but I didn't think it was.'Mantis' as a term refers exclusively to species in the genus 'Mantis' (i.e.
Mantis religiosa), while 'Mantid' refers to any species within the order 'Mantodea.' Thus, it goes along that insects you can properly apply the term 'mantis' to are pluralized to 'mantises,' while 'mantid' species are pluralized to 'mantids.' However, both terms are used fairly interchangeably so it's really up to personal preference.
Here is the source of my info:
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/insect/05510.html (bottom of the page under the heading 'mantis or mantid?')
Ah yes! A young scientist getting it laughably wrong! I remember reading the same argument in a Wikipedia article, a cuppla years back. Here's the "laughably wrong" part: "Technically, Mantis is properly applied to a genus of mantids, the most widely recognized being “the” praying mantid, Mantis religiosa. Mantid is the best term applied to members of this order, Mantodea." So he calls M. religiosa a mantid, anyway.
Recently, I whinged, in my elderly way, about the fact that scientists often have little knowledge of language. I probably exaggerated. They have no idea about language, whatsoever. Technically, one uses technical names, like "mantodea", not "mantids" for technical matters.
The common terms, "mantis" and "mantid" belong to the province of etymologists. Either is fine. A much stronger case can be made for Agent A's claim (another whinge, I believe) that the
insecta should be called "insects", not "bugs" (to avoid confusion with the hemiptera, I assume), but descriptive etymologists won the day in the US with Webster's 3rd International dictionary (
http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/5867/dictionary.html), and if people use "bug" to denote what may be an insect (it could also be a scorpion or other arthropod), that's the way it goes.
I remember being dangerously forthright in a discussion on this subject in my doctoral orals (passed, though!) but this is not the place for such a discussion. So while I stand strongly opposed to both your position, Bats, as well as Rick's highly prescriptive approach ("it's "mantids" where I live, so it must be true throughout the U.S."), I shall just mumble quietly to myself.
