Entomological Etymology 5: the mantis
This time, we’re talking about the praying mantis. They have praying in the name because of how they hold their forelimbs - as if they’re constantly lost in prayer. So where does “mantis” come from? This word comes from Greek, where it literally means a seer or prophet. So praying mantis is the praying prophet! Mantis is connected to the word “mainsethai” meaning “to be inspired”. The root “menos” means inspiration.
The PIE root of this word is “men-” has to do with thinking. So many words spring from this root, like mental, mania, amnesia, and museum!
Of course, mantises aren’t really so concerned with the world of spirit. Mostly, they’re hungry. They use the spines on their forelimbs to grab and hold prey to eat. If kept in close proximity, mantises are liable to eat each other.
You’ve probably heard the sordid tale of cannibalistic female mantises, who mate first and then eat their male. I did a little reading and it seems that female mantises do sometimes eat male mantises: but rather than a psychosexual ritual of sacrifice, hungry female mantises sometimes just prefer food over sex, and choose to eat a male instead of mate with him.
This seems to happen around 20-30% of the time. That’s only a bit worse odds than Russian roulette...
Let’s talk about a few mantis species. The European mantis: its binomial name is Mantis religiosa. In other words, the religious prophet.
Contrast that with the devil’s flower mantis. To avoid the notice of their prey, these huge mantises - up to 13cm long - beautifully mimic leaves and flowers. This is called “cryptic mimicry,” meaning hiding by mimicking the environment. Cryptic originates in Greek “kryptos” meaning hidden. Other English words based on kryptos include the crypt where they keep the bodies, and cryptography for working with secret codes (graph meaning writing). Devil’s flower mantises come from parts of Africa. Their scientific name is Idolomantis diabolica. Idol comes from Latin, meaning an image or statue of non-Christian worship. So Idolomantis seems to mean the prophet who worships an idol - something the Christians who chose this name considered religiously blasphemous. Diabolica means the devil. Clearly, the person who named this bug was creeped out by it! But this mantis has won over popular opinion, as it’s a popular pet species.
Finally, the glorious orchid mantis. What a beauty! Both to us, and especially to other insects. Research shows that these mantises are incredibly attractive to flying insects, just like a real flower - which brings in prey for them to eat. That’s “aggressive mimicry,” as opposed to “cryptic mimicry”. This mantis lives in Southeast Asia. Their scientific name is Hymenopus coronatus. Hymenopus is from Greek. That’s hymen- meaning membrane, and -pus, meaning foot (like in octopus, the eight-foot). So Hymenopus is the membranous foot, for all the little false petals. Coronatus is Latin for crowned, as in coronation. I’m not sure if they’re named that for this little pointy part of their head, or just because they’re so fancy looking in general.
But Hymenopus isn’t born gorgeous: they look quite a bit different at the first instar nymph. They are actually mimicking something completely different at this stage: not a flower, but another insect, an assassin bug. Assassin bugs have a nasty bite, and they taste bad to boot. So this coloration helps them ward off their own predators at this fragile stage of life. For the assassin bug, the red color warns off predators, and is an example of aposematic coloration. That’s from Greek “apo-” meaning away, plus “-sema” referring to a sign - in other words, a warning sign. But the mantis lacks the assassin bug’s defenses, and merely mimics them. So there we have it, mantises can be holy or diabolical, but always masters of disguise. See you next time!
Words covered: mantis, mainsethai, menos, men-, mental, devil’s flower mantis, Idolomantis diabolica, idol, kryptos, cryptic, cryptic mimicry, orchid mantis, Hymenopus coronatus, octopus, aggressive mimicry, aposematic mimicry
Sources:
Douglas Harper. Online Etymological Dictionary
Jess Safaris. “The etymology of ‘mantis’”. Useless Etymology.
Joe Ballinger. “Mantids and cannibalism: a surprisingly complicated affair.” Ask an Entomologist.
“Devil flower mantis”. Keeping Insects.
James Gilbert. “Research Finds the orchid mantis doesn’t mimic an orchid at all.” The Conversation.
Huang et al., (2023) Nat. Commun.
