The adult praying mantises don’t survive our winters, instead the female will eventually produce an egg case-called an ootheca–which contains up to 200 eggs.

About 1,800 species of praying mantids exist around the world. People often refer to any mantid as praying mantis, but mantises are part of a smaller group within the mantids.

A small discovery is now a big deal in the world of insects, and it's all thanks to a UC Davis alum. Lohit Garikipati discovered a new species in the praying mantis family.

Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They have triangular heads with a pair of antennae on flexible necks that, in some species, can rotate their heads almost 180°.