Slim Mexican mantis
Bistanta mexicana
The slim Mexican mantis is a thin, stick-like praying mantis. It has a long body and a small head. It is brown, tan or sometimes greyish, so it blends in with dry twigs and grass.
Lives in
Mexico and the southwestern United States
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not sting and is too small to hurt people.
What does it eat?
Like all mantises, it catches small insects with its spiky front legs.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Slim Mexican mantis about 1 km/h (0.62 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its brown colours help it hide from birds and sneak up on insects.
2
For a long time its genus had only this one species, but now it has five.
3
It was first described in 1894.
you asked
Most asked questions about Slim Mexican mantis
?What does the slim Mexican mantis eat?
Small insects that it grabs with its front legs.
?Where does the slim Mexican mantis live?
Mostly in Mexico, and also in the southwestern United States.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Bistanta mexicana
- Named by
- Saussure & Zehntner, 1894
- Group
- Mantises
- Family
- Thespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Mantodea > Thespidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Mexican bistanta
Where the facts come from
- Bistanta (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by NaturaLista user: clauss. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
European mantis
Orchid mantis
Chinese mantis
Carolina mantis
Conehead mantis
Wandering violin mantis
Rear horned baboon spider
Red-banded sand wasp
Black fat-tailed scorpion
Painted grasshopper
Chinese scorpion
Black honeypot ant