It can look over its shoulder
A mantis can turn its head through half a circle, which no other insect can do.
The backyard · Grasshoppers, crickets, mantises and stick insects
Garden mantis
Orthodera ministralis
A slender, leaf-green insect with a triangular head, big eyes and spiny front legs folded as if in prayer.
- Size
- About 4cm long
- Look for it
- October to December, then January to March
- Where
- Gardens, shrubs and long grass across Australia
Stalks after you, swaying like a leaf. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Praying mantis
Good to know
Six things about the praying mantis
Faster than a blink
Its spiked front legs shoot out and snap shut on a fly in a fraction of a second.
It sways on purpose
It rocks from side to side as it walks, like a leaf in the breeze, so that prey does not notice it coming.
Five eyes
It has two large eyes for seeing shape and distance, and three small ones between them for sensing light.
A foam case of eggs
The female lays her eggs in a blob of froth that hardens into a tough case on a twig.
A blue spot
This kind has a bright blue-purple patch on the inside of each front leg.
The real thing
Photos of the praying mantis
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Look along the stems of shrubs for a green shape that sways. Once it sees you, its head turns to follow.
How to help
A mantis eats flies, moths and other garden pests. If you find an egg case on a twig, leave it where it is.
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