The study was based on the database of the Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, described as the country’s most important scientific organization working on arthropods. Its holdings include books, research articles and annual congress proceedings archived since 1946. The reviewer also consulted two comprehensive works on mantids and searched Google in English and Persian using “Mantodea,” “mantis,” “Iran” and “Persia.” The assembled names and records were adjusted to the nomenclature and classification given in the Mantodea Species File and relevant recent publications, including Shcherbakov and Savitsky (2015) and Villani (2020).

Synonyms that reflected changes in classification across languages and time were consolidated before the national list was compiled. Information on global distribution was compiled by combining local and regional range maps published by previous researchers. This comparison was central to the study’s filtering process.

For approximately 80% of the 57 reported species, the source literature identified a type locality in a particular area, city or province. Nevertheless, a precise locality does not by itself establish that a specimen was correctly identified. The author therefore compared each Iranian report with the species’ recognized range and considered whether similar mantids already documented in Iran could have been confused with the reported taxon.

Based on those geographic and taxonomic comparisons, 18 records were placed in a separate category of species likely misidentified in the primary literature: Ameles decolor, Ameles heldreichi, Ameles picteti, Ameles spallanzania, Elaea marchali, Empusa pennata, Eremiaphila andresi, Eremiaphila cerisy, Eremiaphila turcica, Geomantis larvoides larvoides, Iris coeca, Iris pitcheri, Oxyothespis wagneri, Pareuthyphlebs palmonii, Pseudoyersinia paui, Rivetina baetica baetica, Severinia nigrofasciata and Severinia turcomaniae. The evidence against them differed. Ameles decolor, for example, has no confirmed Asian record in the cited range literature, while its proposed Iranian locality is separated from its easternmost Adriatic distribution.

Ameles picteti and Pseudoyersinia paui were likewise recorded in the review as western Mediterranean or Spanish species without confirmed records outside those regions. Other doubtful names had recognized distributions in North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia or more distant parts of the Middle East. The 39-species list with a high degree of certainty is distributed across nine families, with Rivetinidae contributing the most species at nine and Eremiaphilidae following with eight.

Mantidae accounts for six, Empusidae and Gonypetidae each contribute four, Amelidae and Toxoderidae each contain three, and Nanomantidae and Amorphoscelidae are represented by one species apiece. The list includes taxa reported from widely separated parts of Iran. Mantis religiosa, for example, has records from northern, western, central, eastern and southern provinces, while Empusa pennicornis appears in records from numerous provinces and the Iranian islands of the Persian Gulf.

Iran provides an unusual combination of environmental and biogeographic conditions relevant to mantid diversity. The country spans Mediterranean conditions in the south, arid West Asian climates in the east and west, and temperate humid or semi-humid conditions in the Caspian region to the north. The Palearctic, Eremic and Oriental biogeographical regions meet there, supporting a broad range of arthropod diversity.

Ancient rock art on the Persian Plateau depicts mantids, and the source also records their use in traditional medicine. These cultural associations are historical rather than findings of the checklist, but they show the long-standing presence of mantids in Iranian environments and human life. The review identifies substantial gaps in the geographical record.

Systematic mantid surveys appear never to have occurred in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Qazvin or Zanjan in western Iran. The western half of the country includes the Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges, which have been described as cradles of distinctive floristic and faunistic diversity. Iran also has 17 recognized ecoregions, including marginal ecoregions that the author says were not considered in earlier studies.

These are documented gaps in systematic coverage, not evidence that mantid populations are absent from particular provinces. The review’s central limitation is therefore the uneven and incomplete nature of the available records. Museum collections may help resolve some of that uncertainty, although the study emphasizes their need for careful curation.

The Hayk Mirzayans Insect Museum, or HMIM, contains more than four million insect specimens and limits access to voucher material to reduce the risk of accidental destruction or loss. The author reports that some specimens in other local institutions are poorly preserved and vulnerable. At least 35 mantid specimens likely housed in HMIM should be included in future work on Iranian Mantodea.

This combination of a major national repository and uneven preservation elsewhere demonstrates why the checklist is not simply a compilation of names: each entry depends on records whose accuracy and documentation can vary. The study’s broader conclusion is that Iran’s mantid fauna remains insufficiently documented. The author estimates that the recorded diversity represents approximately 2% of globally identified mantids, while noting Iran’s large area, limited information on its invertebrate community and potential for additional taxa.

This estimate describes the proportion represented by current records, not a prediction that exactly twice the number will be found. The proposed checklist supplies that research context by distinguishing high-certainty entries from records requiring verification, while making clear that systematic fieldwork and renewed examination of preserved material are still needed to determine Iran’s actual mantid diversity.

Subject of Research: A literature-based national checklist of praying mantis species documented in Iran.

Article Title: Mantodea of Iran: A review-based study

Article References: Kolnegari, M. (2023). Mantodea of Iran: A review-based study. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 32(2), 177-188. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.32.97388

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/jor.32.97388

Keywords: Mantodea, Iran, praying mantises, species checklist, taxonomy, entomology, Iranian fauna, biogeography, museum collections, ecoregions, review-based, scientific research