Say's mantidfly
Say's mantidfly is a strange insect that looks like a tiny praying mantis with see-through wings. It has grabbing front legs, a long slim neck and big colourful eyes. Its babies have a sneaky way of finding food: they hitch a ride on spiders.
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Fun facts
A baby mantidfly climbs onto a mother spider and waits until she lays her eggs, then it sneaks into the egg sac to eat them.
It mainly uses wolf spiders as hosts for its babies.
Its front legs look like a praying mantis's, but it keeps them folded most of the time.
It flies only in late summer, from mid July to early September.
Most asked questions about Say's mantidfly
?Is Say's mantidfly a praying mantis?
No. It only has mantis-like front legs. It is a relative of lacewings.
?What does Say's mantidfly eat?
The adults eat small flying insects, and the larvae eat spider eggs.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Dicromantispa sayi
- Group
- Other insects
- Family
- Mantispidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Neuroptera > Mantispidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Dicromantispa sayi (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 Gorillo.Chimpo. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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