mantis religiosa
With our squirrels still on break, we have another campus personality taking the spotlight. Here is a praying mantis (mantis religiosa). Spotted flying about campus, this mantis came to land outside St. Ed's back door. These insects are notorious predators and their name is sometime mistakenly spelled ‘Praying Mantis’ which is incorrect. They are in fact named for the typical ‘prayer-like’ stance.There are approximately two thousand mantid species worldwide. The majority are found in Asia with about twenty species are native to the U.S. On being spotted, this mantis non-verbaled, "Preying or Praying... why not both?"
