Short answer: the wasp mantidfly is not a wasp and not a praying mantis, and it cannot sting. It’s a lacewing relative (Climaciella brunnea) that copies the colors of a paper wasp almost perfectly and catches prey with folded front legs like a mantis does. If you found a “mantis wasp” on your porch railing or garden flowers, you can leave it alone. It poses no risk to people, pets, or your house.
For non-aggressive wasps I've had great luck spraying nests with this Spectracide wasp remover in the evening. For a nest up high in an eave, soffit, or tree, this Gotcha pole adapter clamps onto the can so you can spray from the end of an extension pole and treat the nest from 10+ feet away instead of standing right under it. And for anything aggressive I wear this ridiculous-looking upper torso beekeeping suit and keep my distance. It seems silly, but trust me, I learned the hard way.
People search for this insect for one reason: they saw it and couldn’t believe it was real. A brown-and-yellow insect with clear wings that looks like a paper wasp sits on a flower. Then it raises a pair of spiny, jackknife front legs and snatches a fly. This guide explains what you’re looking at, how to tell it from a real paper wasp in a few seconds, and why it behaves the way it does.
If you’re trying to identify a stinging insect more broadly, start with our wasp identification guide. For other harmless look-alikes, see bugs that look like wasps.
The wasp mantidfly, also called the brown wasp mantidfly, is a predatory insect in the family Mantispidae (mantidflies or mantispids), in the order Neuroptera. That order also includes green lacewings and antlions. Its scientific name is Climaciella brunnea.
Despite its nicknames, it has no close relationship to either of the insects it resembles:
| Insect | Order | Relationship to the wasp mantidfly |
|---|---|---|
| Paper wasp | Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, ants) | Unrelated; the mantidfly only copies its colors |
| Praying mantis | Mantodea | Unrelated; both evolved grasping front legs separately |
| Green lacewing | Neuroptera | A genuine relative, in the same order |
Mantidflies are an ancient group. There are roughly 400 species worldwide, mostly in warm regions. Only a handful live in the United States, and Climaciella brunnea is the one that imitates wasps.
Most sightings get posted online under one of these names, and they all refer to the same insect or its close relatives:
None of these insects is a wasp, and none is a mantis.
At first glance the wasp mantidfly looks like a Polistes paper wasp. It’s about the same size, roughly ½ to 1 inch long. It has the same reddish-brown or dark brown body marked with yellow bands, and the same long, narrow wings. On a flower or a sunny fence rail, most people would assume it’s a paper wasp, and that’s exactly what the disguise is for.
These features give it away:
This is the clearest clue. The front legs are raptorial: thick, spined, and folded like a jackknife under the head, held up and ready to strike. Paper wasps have six ordinary walking legs. If the front pair looks like it belongs on a praying mantis, you’re looking at a mantidfly.
The first segment of the thorax (the prothorax) is stretched into a narrow stalk, so the head and front legs sit out ahead of the body. Real wasps have a compact thorax with the head attached close to the wings.
Paper wasps have a sharply narrowed waist (the petiole) between the thorax and abdomen. The wasp mantidfly’s abdomen joins the thorax more broadly. The mantidfly’s coloring makes the body look waisted from a distance, but up close the narrow section is the “neck” at the front, not a waist behind the wings.
Mantidfly wings have a dense network of small veins, the “nerve-winged” pattern of lacewings. In the wasp mantidfly they’re mostly clear with a dark brown stripe along the front edge, which looks like the dark folded wings of a resting paper wasp. At rest the wings slope over the body like a tent. Paper wasps fold their wings lengthwise and lay them flat along the back.
The antennae are relatively short and thick. Paper wasps have longer antennae that they wave and tap constantly as they move.
| Feature | Wasp mantidfly | Paper wasp | Praying mantis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Size | ~½–1 inch | ~¾–1 inch | 2–5 inches for common garden species |
| Front legs | Raptorial, folded, spined | Normal walking legs | Raptorial, folded, spined |
| Waist | No true pinched waist | Distinct narrow waist | No pinched waist |
| Wings | Clear, net-veined, dark front edge, held roof-like | Smoky or amber, folded flat | Leathery forewings over fan-like hindwings |
| Coloring | Brown/black with yellow bands | Brown, red, or black with yellow | Usually green or tan |
| Stinger | None | Yes (females) | None |
| Lives in a colony | No, solitary | Yes, open paper nest | No, solitary |
If you’re still unsure after this checklist, treat the insect as a wasp and keep your distance until you get a better look. Our guides to what a wasp looks like and wasp anatomy cover the features of real wasps in more detail.
The wasp mantidfly is a textbook case of Batesian mimicry, where a harmless species copies the warning colors of a dangerous one. Birds, lizards, and other predators that have been stung by paper wasps learn to avoid that brown-and-yellow pattern. The mantidfly benefits from that lesson without having a stinger.
The mimicry is remarkably precise. Climaciella brunnea comes in several color forms, and researchers have found that the forms tend to match the Polistes paper wasp species common in the same region. In one area the mantidflies may be mostly dark brown with a little yellow. Elsewhere they may be redder or more strongly banded, tracking whichever paper wasps local predators have learned to fear. That’s why photos of “the same bug” from different states can look quite different.
For a homeowner, the practical point is this: the mantidfly is built to look like something you’d avoid. It’s no surprise that it’s hard to identify at a glance.
Range: The wasp mantidfly is widespread in North America, from southern Canada across much of the United States and south into Mexico and Central America. It shows up in sightings everywhere from Minnesota and Michigan to Texas and the Southeast.
Season: Adults appear from late spring through summer. Most sightings come in June, July, and August, with the season starting earlier in southern states.
Where to look: Adults are active during the day and often perch on flowers and foliage in sunny spots: meadows, field edges, gardens, and woodland margins. Flowers bring a steady supply of small insects, so a mantidfly will often sit motionless among the blooms, front legs raised, waiting.
Homeowners most often report them:
Other, non-wasp-mimicking mantidflies (such as the small green mantidfly, Zeugomantispa minuta, and the brown Dicromantispa species) are often attracted to porch lights at night. If you find a small, pale green or tan “mini mantis” with lacy wings by your door in the morning, it’s probably one of these cousins.
Adults are ambush predators. They grab small insects, such as flies, small bees, and other flower visitors, with their raptorial forelegs and eat them on the spot, much as a praying mantis does on a smaller scale.
Larvae have a far stranger diet: spider eggs.
The wasp mantidfly’s life cycle is one of the oddest of any insect you’re likely to find in a backyard.
Eggs on stalks. The female lays large numbers of tiny eggs, each on a thin silk stalk, in clusters on leaves or bark. The stalks help protect the eggs from predators crawling across the surface.
Active, hunting larvae. The newly hatched larvae are slim and mobile. Each one has a single job: find a spider. Many climb aboard a passing spider, often a hunting spider such as a wolf spider, and ride along, sometimes tucked near the spider’s waist. Research on Climaciella brunnea has found that larvae can stay on a spider for months, even through the winter.
Into the egg sac. When the female spider spins her egg sac, the larva slips inside before it’s sealed. A larva that boarded a male spider or a juvenile may move to a female later. Some larvae skip the ride and burrow straight into an egg sac they find.
A body change. Inside the egg sac, the larva molts into a plump, grub-like form with short legs. It barely moves and simply feeds on the spider eggs. This dramatic change in body form between larval stages is called hypermetamorphosis.
Pupation and emergence. The larva pupates inside the egg sac, sheltered by the spider’s own silk. The adult then emerges to start the cycle again.
So the “mantis wasp” on your coneflower started life eating its way through a clutch of spider eggs. That’s another way it differs from real spider wasps, which paralyze adult spiders with a sting and lay an egg on them.
No, a wasp mantidfly cannot sting. It has no stinger and no venom apparatus. The stinger is a feature of wasps, bees, and ants (order Hymenoptera), and mantidflies belong to a completely different order.
If you pick one up, it may grip your finger with its spiny front legs, which can feel like a light pinch or prickle. That’s a defensive reflex and not a medical concern. It doesn’t break skin in any way that matters, and there is no venom.
The practical rule is simple:
For homeowners, wasp mantidflies are neutral to mildly beneficial:
They’re also uncommon enough that many naturalists are excited to find one. If you spot one, it’s worth a photo.
Outdoors: Leave it alone. No treatment, spray, or removal is needed, and insecticide would harm the pollinators and other beneficial insects on the same flowers.
Indoors: Use the same gentle method you’d use for any single flying insect:
If you’re not fully sure it’s a mantidfly, follow our guide to getting a wasp out of your house instead. The same steps work and keep you safe either way.
Sometimes the insect is the real thing. You’re probably dealing with an actual paper wasp if you notice:
Paper wasps are not usually aggressive away from their nest, but they will defend it. If you’ve found a nest near a doorway or play area, our paper wasp guide and paper wasp nest identification and removal guide cover how to handle it safely. Regional species such as the red paper wasp, northern paper wasp, and European paper wasp each have their own guides.
Safety note: Anyone with a known allergy to insect stings should be cautious with any wasp-like insect until it has been identified. If a sting leads to trouble breathing, swelling of the face or throat, dizziness, or hives spreading beyond the sting site, call 911 right away. These are signs of anaphylaxis. For large nests, nests inside walls, or nests in hard-to-reach places, a licensed pest control professional is the safest option.
Neither. It’s a mantidfly (family Mantispidae), a relative of lacewings and antlions. It copies a paper wasp’s colors and has grasping front legs like a mantis, but it’s unrelated to both.
They’re widespread but not often noticed. They’re solitary, they’re active for only part of the summer, and their disguise works, so most people who see one assume it’s a paper wasp. Many people only realize what they saw after taking a close look or a photo.
No. It has no stinger or venom. A pet that catches one may get a small prickle from the spiny front legs, but that’s harmless. If your pet was stung by something and you didn’t see what it was, treat it as a possible wasp sting. Our guides for a dog stung by a wasp and a cat stung by a wasp explain what to watch for.
No. Wasp mantidflies don’t build nests or live in colonies. A single insect on a flower or screen doesn’t point to an infestation. If you’re seeing a lot of wasp-like insects but can’t find a nest, see lots of wasps but no nest.
The larvae eat spider eggs inside the egg sac, not the adult spider. Adult mantidflies eat small insects.
The next time a “paper wasp” on your garden flowers raises a pair of mantis arms, you’ll know what you’ve found: one of the best wasp impersonators in North America, and a harmless one.
For more insects that borrow wasp colors, read our guide to bugs that look like wasps or the wasp spider. To identify the real stinging species around your home, return to the complete wasp identification guide.