Praying mantis

The mantises or Mantodea is an order of insects that comprises thousands of species. Adult Praying mantids may eat large moths such as Fruit-piercing mohts. The female Praying mantis lays a few hundred eggs in a cluster (ootheca) attached to an object like a branch or trunk. Large species of mantids may have a length of up to 12 cm. Their colour is usually adaptedto the environment they naturally live in. They have about 2 generations per year. Young mantids look like adults, but don't have wings. Adult females often have no wings either, or reduced wings.

Horsehair Worms (Nematomorpha, but mostly Chordodes) parasitize Praying mantids. The parasites may enter the host through an intermediate host with aquatic larvae (eg Diptera and Ephemeroptera) that is eaten by a mantis.[1]