Chaeteessidae

Rivera, Julio, 2010, A historical review of praying mantid taxonomy and systematics in the Neotropical Region: State of knowledge and recent advances (Insecta: Mantodea), Zootaxa 2638, pp. 44-64 : 49

Chaeteessidae and Mantoididae

These two families include small, stout-built, very active species from tropical areas of South, Central and southern North America. Unlike most mantids, species of these families are active hunters that chase their prey (Salazar 2005). This behaviour, along with their plesiomorphic morphology, has led students to consider these families as two of the basal-most extant taxa in Mantodea ( Grimaldi 2003; Grimaldi & Engel 2005). Each family includes just one genus: Chaeteessa Burmeister with five species and Mantoida Newman with 11species. These genera have never been reviewed taxonomically and the current taxonomic literature allows the identification of only a handful of species, if any, since most descriptions are old and inaccurate, thus preventing comparative analysis. Only the male genitalia of three species of Mantoida have been described: M. brunneriana ( Saussure, 1871) , M. argentinae La Greca & Lombardo, 1989 and M. ronderosi La Greca & Lombardo, 1989 (all in La Greca & Lombardo 1989). A rather distinctive species, Mantoida toulgoeti Roy, 2010 was recently described ( Roy 2010). There are no useful references for distinguishing among Chaeteessa species, which are all known from only very few specimens.