top of page

Mantises of Zihuatanejo

INFRAORDER SCHIZOMANTODEA

-Animals (Kingdom Animalia)

-Arthropods (Phylum Arthropoda)

-Hexapods (Subphylum Hexapoda)

-Insects (Class Insecta)

-Winged and Once-winged Insects (Subclass Pterygota)

-Mantises (Order Mantodea)

-Suborder Eumantodea

-Infraorder Schizomantodea

-Superfamily Thespoidea

-Family Thespidae

-Subfamily Thespinae

-Tribe Thespini

-Genus Thespis


Mantises in the genus Thespis are small, slender, and dull-colored mantids known for pronounced sexual dimorphism, where the females are wingless and the males have functional wings. Thespis mantises are typically found in environments with dense vegetation, such as meadows, gardens, and pine stands, where they are ambush predators. They use their raptorial forelegs to capture prey, which can include insects up to half their own body length.

Description

  • Thespis is a genus of slender praying mantises in the family Thespidae. They have elongated bodies, long delicate legs, relatively small heads, and slender raptorial forelegs armed with fine spines. Their brown, grey, or greenish colouring and narrow body shape provide effective camouflage among grasses, stems, and foliage.

Range

  • Thespis is a Neotropical genus occurring from Mexico and Central America into northern and tropical South America. Several species occur in Mexico, including warm regions of the Pacific slope and southern Mexico, and members of the genus may be encountered around Zihuatanejo in suitable habitat.

Habitat

  • These mantises inhabit tropical and subtropical forest, seasonally dry woodland, scrub, grassland, forest edges, and clearings. They are primarily associated with vegetation and often remain motionless on slender stems, grasses, and leaves, where their elongated form makes them difficult to detect.

Diet

  • Thespis species are carnivorous ambush predators that feed mainly on small insects and other arthropods. Their prey includes flies, moths, small beetles, true bugs, grasshoppers, and spiders, which they capture with their spined forelegs.

Thespis Mantis

Thespis (Genus)

bottom of page