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Mighty Mantids
JANUARY 2006
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In Learn More the National Geographic magazine team shares some of its best sources and other information to expand your knowledge of our featured subjects. Special thanks to the Research Division.
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 Did You Know?
As early as the ancient Greeks, people have credited mantids with supernatural powers. In parts of southern Europe, the belief was that a praying mantis would point a lost child home. In the Muslim world, it was thought that a praying mantis always prayed facing Mecca. The Kalahari Bushmen sometimes envision their creator deity, Kaang, as a mantid. In that incarnation, he is known as the "great magician."
Although in many parts of Asia mantids are often considered pets and are frequently handled lovingly, they have also been used as fighting animals, battling to the death in bamboo cages. In fact, several styles of kung fu, known as Tang Lang in Chinese, were inspired by the insect's merciless and predatory maneuvers. Practitioners of the praying mantis style imitate the tactics that the creature uses to trap and maim its prey.
—Taryn L. Salinas
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Bibliography
Preston-Mafham, Ken. Grasshoppers and Mantids of the World. Facts on File, 1990.
Prete, Frederick R., and others. The Praying Mantids. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Schneider, Dan. "The Devil's Riding Horse: The Praying Mantis." Canadian Geographic (July/August 1997), 44.
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NGS Resources
"Trick or Treat." National Geographic World (October 1991), 21.
Ross, Edward S. "Mantids, the Praying Predators." National Geographic (February 1984), 268-80.
Pitkin, John G. "Praying Mantis." National Geographic (May 1950) 685-92.
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