Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Interactive image map to choose major taxa Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar
Upcoming Events

National Moth Week was July 19-27, and the Summer 2025 gathering in Louisiana, July 19-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27


Family Thespidae

Representative Images

two mantids - Bistanta mexicana - male Thesprotia graminis female  - Thesprotia graminis - female Arizona Mantis - Bistanta mexicana Unknown Mantis Nymph Species  - Thesprotia graminis Manomera - Thesprotia graminis - male skinny mantis walking stick ? - Thesprotia graminis “Thespis parva“ slender prairie mantis ootheca - Thespis parva

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Mantodea (Mantids)
Family Thespidae

Explanation of Names

Thespidae Giglio-Tos 1919

Numbers

3 spp. in 3 genera in our area, close to 100 spp. in ~40 genera total(1)

Range

New World (primarily neotropical); Africa, Eurasia

Remarks

variously treated in superfamilies Thespoidea Saussure 1869(2) or Acanthopoidea Burmeister 1838(3)

Print References

(4)