Discovering a Tiny World ☺ Mantodea genre Acontista

Mantoids (Mantodea, Mantis and Greek eide, "which looks like") are an order of neoptera insects commonly known as mantis, mamboretás, santateresas, rezadoras or campamochas. Some 2,450 species are known all over the world, but with special diversity in the tropics. Its most striking feature is the structure of its previous legs, notably modified for the capture of prey. They live among the vegetation, in which they camouflage perfectly.

They are closely related to the isoptera (termites) and the blatodeos (cockroaches), and these three groups are sometimes assembled in the superorder Dictyoptera, which is sometimes considered as an order.

The body is elongated, cryptic green or brown, although there are colorful species (Hymenopus, Theopompa, Liturgusa) camouflaged with flowers, bark or lichens. The mantodes have a triangular and mobile head. On the forehead, on the clipping, is a characteristic frontal shield, on which are three ocelli. The antennae are filiform and the oral apparatus is chewing type.

The prothorax is narrow (bacilliform) or coarse. The former legs are raptors. These have an elongated thigh, sometimes as much as the femur. The femurs are armed along the ventral margins by 2 rows of stout thorns, as well as the tibiae.