iN PHOTOS: Frightful facts about the praying mantis in Okanagan, Kamloops

Mantids are being spotted in Kamloops and the Okanagan lately, and the creatures are not only fascinating looking, they also have eyebrow-raising behaviours.

The large insects look like aliens with triangular heads and widely spaced eyes and giant forelegs they use to seize prey. The prayer-like position of their folded forelegs has given them the common name praying mantis.

The insects are carnivorous and mostly prey on arthropods including insects, spiders and centipedes. Mantids are camouflaged and ambush hunters that wait motionless for the right to time to seize a victim which they eat alive, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.

They mate aggressively as they hunt. The female mantids eat the males before, during and after copulation. Male mantids have evolved to be cautious while mating, approaching females slowly and freezing when she moves, then running away after mating.

Mantids are the only insects with binocular vision like humans, and they have a flexible neck that allows them to look over their shoulders. When alarmed, mantids rear up in threatening postures.

Most species of mantids live in the tropics. There are only three in Canada and two of them are found in BC.

The European mantis was accidentally introduced to New York State from Europe in 1899 and spread into parts of Canada. It was later introduced tin the Okanagan in an effort to control grasshoppers.

The ground mantid is the only native species in the country and can only be found in the dry grasslands of the South Okanagan.