Meet the gladiators: ancient, wingless insects hidden in plain sight until 2001.

Nature · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Discovered only in 2001, the Mantophasmatidae family—often called gladiators—are wingless, carnivorous insects that look like a hybrid of mantises and phasmids. Though they were once thought to be entirely new, they are actually ancient survivors with a history stretching back to the Eocene and even the Middle Jurassic.

The discovery of the Mantophasmatidae was a landmark event in modern entomology, as these enigmatic insects were initially identified from old museum specimens collected in Namibia and Tanzania. It was not until an international expedition in early 2002 that researchers successfully located live specimens in the wild, specifically on the Brandberg and Erongoberg massifs. These insects are entirely wingless, even as adults, which makes them notoriously difficult to classify and identify in the field.

Molecular evidence suggests that these creatures are the sister group to the Grylloblattidae, another group of insects known for their mysterious nature. Scientists continue to debate their exact taxonomic placement; some researchers, such as Arillo and Engel, propose grouping both families into a single order called Notoptera. Others suggest they belong to a broader clade known as Xenonomia. Their evolutionary history is surprisingly deep, with fossils like the 45-million-year-old Raptophasma kerneggeri found in Baltic amber, and even older specimens dating to the Middle Jurassic period.

Today, these insects are primarily found in western South Africa and Namibia, though the existence of relict populations in Tanzania hints at a much wider distribution in the distant past. Their behavior is as fascinating as their history. During courtship, they communicate through vibrations transmitted across the ground. Mating is a prolonged affair, with the male using his one-segmented cerci to grasp the female, a process that can last for up to three days. Ongoing research continues to reveal new species, such as those described in the Richtersveld region as recently as 2018.

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