Invertebrate Stereotypes - Mantises - 6

Patient, sinister, evil

The patient mantis: Because mantises are able to wait for hours for food to approach them. Mantises have two grasping, spiked forelegs ("raptorial legs") in which prey items are caught and held securely. One theory for the evolution of the group is that mantises evolved from proto-cockroaches, diverging from their common ancestors by the Cretaceous period, possibly from species like Raphidiomimula burmitica, a predatory cockroach with mantis-like forelegs.

Two martial arts that had been separately developed in China have movements and fighting strategies based on those of the Mantis. As one of these arts was developed in northern China, and the other in southern parts of the country, the arts are nowadays referred to (both in English and Chinese) as 'Northern Praying Mantis' and 'Southern Praying Mantis'. Both arts are very popular in China, and have also been imported to the West in recent decades.