OniOniOniArt

At some point last night, and unbeknownst to me until this morning, an adorable mantispid snuck inside my house; likely when I was hauling in the groceries. These are one of my favorite insects. A book entitled Florida's Fabulous Insects by Mark Deyrup, describes them thusly: "The mantisfly looks like the prank of an unusually deft student, who has  attached the front end of a miniature mantis to a lacewing." Superficially, mantispids, or mantisflies, look like little preying mantids but they are not related. The mantispids are more closely related to ant lions and lacewings, whereas preying mantids are more closely related to cockroaches. The modified front legs of the mantispid are used in the same manner as mantids, to quickly grasp prey. Mantispid larvae seek out spider egg sacs and feed on the eggs. Here's the little bugger on my hand so you can roughly gauge its size  While in my custody, the mantispid did some adorable things such as cle...