Mantis religiosa

This page is all up-to-date. No further observations.

About

A brown European Mantis waiting for prey

The European Mantis is the only species of mantis native to and observed in Middle and Eastern Europe. It used to be a common species in warm regions and has moved further North over the last thirty years. While it has been observed all around Germany since around the late 1990s, it is still a rare sight in many regions. With up to 8cm in body length, they are the largest insect in the area.

Sam says

I heard about someone seeing a few specimens of religiosa in a fallow in Leipzig, Grünau, in late summer 2025 but never found the time, to check that place out. While I had given up on finding one for the first time that year, I walked into the whole river meadow being covered in them one day mid September. Dozens of the large mantids hung from grass blades upside down in the evening sun, not bothered by me, by the camera or anything at all. All of them were fully grown and probably out to mate. Later that year in October, I found a few of the characteristically large oothecs near the ground in the same spot. Unfortunately the city decided to mow all of them down just days later.

Slideshow

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Observations

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•