about 16 years ago i saw a praying mantis about 10" in length.
where i grew up there are lots of fields and woods. well between my house and my neighbors house was a vacant one acre lot which was all grown over with weeds and small trees..we had a path going through it that my brother had cut with are tractor. one day my dog had escaped from the back yard and whenever he did that he would always go to my neighbors house to hangout with there dog...anyway i walked through the cut path throught the weeds to get my dog..and on the way back me and my dog were running down the path and he tripped himself up in a hole that some kid dug in the middle of the path...my dog lay there for a moment yellping so i went over to pick him up and carry him. when i bent over to pick him up..i saw a HUGE! praying mantis in the weeds about 2 feet from me...i really freaked out!..i knew it wasnt right..i ran as fast as i could with my dog...now has anyone ever seen a mantis that big?

Dang man! You shoulda chucked that sucker on the barbie!

im oringialy from PA and every night in the summer they would get on top of the tennis court fence . anyway they were all aorund that size .
i live in florida now and WOW I just got a great idea.
anyway the ones down here are 1 to 3 inches in leanght.

Funny you should mention this as my brother and I were talking about when we were kids the parking lot at the marina a t the lake was full of them one summer.

After that summer which was probably 20 years ago I haven't seen them around much anymore more, I thing they are like locust, they come in spurts during the years and then disappear, almost like they never were.

Haven't you noticed that about certain bugs that sometimes it's now you see them, now you don't. Makes you wonder where they go.

FYI Praying Mantis ( female bites the head off the male at the exact moment the male ejaculates his sperm.) ha ha talk about a male dominant species

Interesting to note 'Where have all the Praying Mantis gone'

Insects of crazy size really don't bother me that much but swarms do. One year up north in MN they had an army worm swarm, nasty little buggers.

yeah i have noticed the same thing..when i was young there were always lots of mantis in the weeds...now i very rarely see one. other things i dont see anymore are those big yellow and black spiders.. and japanese beetles. and i dont know if this has been discussed before but i never see white crusty dog poo laying around like back in the day..weird

I would have to guess your memory has exaggerated the size of the insect. A 10" praying mantis is not impossible, but it's certainly unheard of and counter-intuitive.

Gigantism can occur in just about any species, but insects are poorly suited to growing to extreme proportions because of the mechanics of their bodies. Things like air intake, fluid circulation, membrane integrity, the efficiency of these systems does down rapidly as size increases. Reason being, the external dimensions grow at a much slower rate (1/2 I think), proportionally, than the internal mass. If the insect's surface area grows by x, then the internal cavity grows by 2x, right?

Also, the mantis is not the hardiest of insects, and their slow disappearance from America is definitely reality. You can still find them in abundance overseas, but the environment and the biodiversity in North America really isn't sufficient to support a big mantis population. Also, they're very sensitive to temperature changes, and the fact that even the southernmost states experience frost and freezing temperatures pretty much clinches it.

They're not the easiest insect to take care of, even in captivity, and I think they just weren't up to the challenge of adapting to industrialization, wilder temperature shifts, predation by rats and birds, and of course an unstable food supply. They eat quite a bit for their size if I remember, and have fairly large territories. I could be totally wrong, over the years the old coconut has lost much of its milk...

Wow, an insect eat a bird. Thats crazy, now I want to buy a praying mantis, they always seemed so cool, but now they look even better. I just hope they dont get too big, then we may have a problem... I thought that it would be a tiny baby humming bird, but this one looked pretty full grown(not that im an expert) but it certainly was larger than i expected it to be.

Originally posted by ti josephus
yeah i have noticed the same thing..when i was young there were always lots of mantis in the weeds...now i very rarely see one. other things i dont see anymore are those big yellow and black spiders.. and japanese beetles. and i dont know if this has been discussed before but i never see white crusty dog poo laying around like back in the day..weird

same for me, even the poo!

but here in hong kong, i have seen many a mantis. i've had two last month trying to get in my front door. i have to shoo them away.

also at my work place, i have seen for the first time, baby mantis. lots of them too. they were very small and i had to look fairly close to see what they were.

i was amazed for they were all over. (not like an infestation tho)

really cool insects.

Biggest mantis i ever saw was maybe 3iches, that was years ago. If i saw a 10inch one id run away from till til i collapse from exhaustion, cant stand insects.

I promise you with all that is holy, I also saw one a few years ago and it haunts me to this day. I feel So very upset when I think of the little guy, I can hardly believe it was the most pitiful thing I have ever done. There is no forgiving myself.

I feel so much guilt I can barely stand it. Thinking many times to post here about it but deciding it would not be believed.

Checking each new thread about the species has never made me want to post, but I believe you totally, here is my story:

It was a chilly late fall early evening when my Mother, ex husband, and 3 children stopped at an IHOP for a snack, we pile out of the van and go in and when we returned to the van, we all saw the most amazing praying mantis walking towards us from the direction of the restaurant.

It was HUGE! At least 12 inches high and 10 inches long. It walked on its back legs almost human like and came straight up to me, its mouth moving and hands making motions of needing to connect.

His eyes looked straight into my soul and it sent a shock to my nervous system. At first repulsed and a little frightened by his desperate attempt to make contact, and making a big deal of it to my family, they all just told me get in! Get in! I was driving and the last to get in, I walked around the van with the little guy following me, pleading with me.

Stopping only at the back of the van for a moment and looking at him with wide eyed wonder. I told him I cant, I cant help you, I am freaked out here and I just cant. I walked briskly to my door and got in. The little guy dropped his head and started walking away slowly.

I said to my family, what should we do? We need to take him with us, but they insisted we leave him and go. It was almost as if they could not comprehend what it was we just witnessed. My heart is so sad recounting this.

I did not know that praying mantis could not get that big, that I missed the biggest opportunity of my life to help another species , a rare and priceless species. If I could go back, and I have thought of this many many times, I would have placed him on the dash board and allowed him to point to where he needed to go, if not to simply take him from the city, and take him home to my house 45 miles out into the sticks.

Was he alien? Was he the species we all know, only extremely evolved? This is the single worst thing I have ever done. Its almost impossible to share this. God forgive me for leaving him that cold night alone in the city.

Since then, I have made it abundantly clear that if ever a crash happens, or an escape, I promise to care for , hide and protect the being.

Well, I had a friend who kept a large female praying mantis as a pet and I was shocked by how large it was. This thing was around 6 inches long. I know this for a fact cause I had my friend measure his mouse which it died next to, and the mouse was around 4 and a half inches long. That mantis was at least and inch and a half longer. (old age..., did not have a long life span)

10 inches does not seem incomprehensible. Now, the person who say the 2 foot mantis...well. That is some scary mantis. Could probably hunt dogs and birds...