Cretomantidae is an extinct family of mantises in the order

Mantodea Mantises are an Order (biology), order (Mantodea) of insects that contains List of mantis genera and species, over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids") ...

. It contains at least one genus '' Cretomantis'', which is known from the Early Cretaceous Zaza Formation of Buryatia, Russia. The genus '' Electromantis'' known from Late Cretaceous (

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya ( million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 m ...

) Taimyr amber of Russia was formerly placed in this family, but is currently considered ''

incertae sedis or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'' within Mantodea.

Genera

These two genera belong to the family Cretomantidae: * † '' Cretomantis'' Gratshev & Zherikhin, 1994 * † '' Electromantis'' Gratshev & Zherikhin, 1994

References

† Prehistoric insect families Aptian first appearances Aptian extinctions {{Paleo-insect-stub