Yeah, the mantis was sweet.
Me and my friends carried him around.
He doesn't move that much.
She*
Female:
Male:
Notice difference in belly size, wing size and antenna size.
I happen to know quite a bit about European Mantid, I used to breed them and sell the egg sacks at a gardening shop up the street (Putting mantis egg sacks in gardens is a really easy and humane way of getting rid of plant-eating bugs in your garden.) I had about 4 cages in my garage, each with around 7-8 females separated by segments so they wouldn't attempt to eat eachother. Only about 5 would successfully get a male though, because males are extremely hard to find.
A really neat thing that some females can do though is called
Parthenogenesis, where they don't need a male to breed, making multiple "Clones" of the mother.
Males also are capable of flying, but they are very active and hyper and are difficult to keep in one's hand. I loved female mantids, especially because they are usually calm and willing to feed from your hand (which is just so cool.)
EDIT: For those of you wondering if the small back dot on the mantid's eye is some form of pupil, it is just an illusion. It makes it seem as if the mantis is constantly watching you.
