# Mantidfly



## arachnocat (Jun 2, 2008)

I was excited to find this guy in my laundry room yesterday. He's a California mantidfly. I've only seen pics of them so it was cool to see a live one. It was hard to get a good picture, he wouldn't hold still.


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## crpy (Jun 2, 2008)

Look like good pics to me, nice, nice ,nice:clap:


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## OTwolfe (Jun 2, 2008)

cool little critter! how big do they get?


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## arachnocat (Jun 2, 2008)

Thanks! He was about 3/4".


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## Matt K (Jun 2, 2008)

For something so small you surely caught some nice pics of it.  Well done!


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## jynxxxedangel (Jun 2, 2008)

*Mantisfly*

Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but did you guys know that these lacewings' favourite meal is-- *gulp*-- spider eggs? 

Look it up, I'm not blowing smoke..

They are very cool looking little bugs, though! It's amazing how they are completely unrelated to mantids, and yet have such similar physical features.


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## deathwing (Jun 3, 2008)

jynxxxedangel said:


> Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but did you guys know that these lacewings' favourite meal is-- *gulp*-- spider eggs?
> 
> Look it up, I'm not blowing smoke..
> 
> They are very cool looking little bugs, though! It's amazing how they are completely unrelated to mantids, and yet have such similar physical features.


And also aphids. But I think that isnt a lacewing?


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## Villosa (Jun 3, 2008)

Nice mantidfly! I've always wanted to see one in real life. I've read that they are parasitic to wasps or bees depending on what's available or the species.


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## myrmecophile (Jun 3, 2008)

Actually the adults are very accomplished predators. I commonly find them at my black lights eating other insects which came to the light.


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## BurrowDweller (Jun 3, 2008)

We find tons of them in Kentucky when searching golden rod flowers for crab spiders. Cool bugs!


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## arachnocat (Jun 3, 2008)

I wonder if the larvae look like ant lions or just mini adults.


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## Stylopidae (Jun 3, 2008)

deathwing said:


> And also aphids. But I think that isnt a lacewing?


Order _Neuroptera_ are the lacewings. _Mantispidae_ are firmly within that order.

And the larvae of these guys are generally predatory on spider eggs...not the adults.

The adults feed similarly to mantids.


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## dtknow (Jun 3, 2008)

So breeding these in captivity would be relatively straightforward...eh? do they require a specific species as a host?


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## Bugs In Cyberspace (Jun 4, 2008)

I like the term mantispid (rather than mantidfly) to describe these bugs since they are not actually "flies" (diptera). There are actually insects in diptera that have raptorial forelegs. Here's a link to a photo:

http://www.entomology.ualberta.ca/searching_species_details.php?s=5831

On a related note, I caught two snake"flies" in the past two weeks. They seem to feed pretty well on melanogaster flies, but the first one I caught has now died.


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## josh_r (Jun 4, 2008)

ive seen a couple few different species of these guys here in az... never seen them until i moved here. they are really cool!


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## Eclipse (Jun 4, 2008)

deathwing said:


> And also aphids. But I think that isnt a lacewing?


I think it was said before, but the mantisfly is in no way related to a mantis if anything it would be more closely related to a fly, but belongs in the lacewing family. It has a larval stage just like lacewings and flies. :}

I like how evolution works.


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## Galapoheros (Jun 4, 2008)

I've seen very few of these until I put a BL on my back porch to catch food for my mantises.  The past few nights I've seen several at a time next to the light.  I didn't think they were that common here.  Thanks, those are some great pics.


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## auroborus (Jun 7, 2008)

Ya, I turned on my black light and saw a pair of mantid flies gorging themselves until they were fat as could be. Ya, its deff cool how evolution  can create two distant species that hunt and look almost identical.


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## Stylopidae (Jun 7, 2008)

It's called convergent evolution...when two unrelated  groups evolve similar features.

Quite a few examples of this...the marsupial sugar gliders in Australia and the Eutherian flying squirrels here in America, for example.


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## anaconda19 (Jun 7, 2008)

he looks cool are you keeping him? fed it yet? whats its size?


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## arachnocat (Jun 7, 2008)

I didn't keep him. I let him go after I took some pics.


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## bjaeger (Jun 8, 2008)

I'd love to have a mantidfly. 'grats on the find!


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