INTRODUCTION Praying mantis are attractive, cryptic and solitary insects occur in tropical and subtropical climatic conditions (Schultz, 2018). Both nymphs and adult are ambush predators in terrestrial ecosystem and play a vital role in natural control of insect pests (Svenson and Whiting 2004). Mantids snatch the prey using its raptorial forelegs, adults devour larger insects like grasshoppers, beetles, crickets while nymphs predate on aphids, leafhoppers, caterpillars and other soft bodied insects (Loxton and Nicholl 1979). They also serve as bio-indicators of environmental loss (Battiston et al., 2020). Globally over 2300 species of mantids under 436 genera and 15 families were reported (Schwarz and Roy 2019). In India, the number of mantid species reported are 184 under 73 genera and 11 families which includes 44 species belonging to 36 genera and 9 families from Tamil Nadu (Ghate et al., 2019). Reports in Tamil Nadu includes those of Chandra and Sharma (2009); Vyjayandi et al. (2010); Srikumar et al. (2018); Meeran et al. (2021). Considering their importance as predators in cultivated ecosystem, the present work was conducted to inventorize the diversity of mantids in gardenland crop ecosystems of Coimbatore. MATERIALS AND METHODS Exploratory surveys were made from November 2021 to April 2022 to study the diversity of praying mantis in garden land ecosystem of Coimbatore district (Table 1). Sampling of mantids was done by visual inspection (Brannoch et al., 2017). The morphological characters were observed using Leica S8APO stereo microscope; photographed with Leica M205C microscope and Nikon D3100 DSLR camera. Species identification was done by following the keys of Mukherjee et al. (1995); Vyjayandi (2007). Relative abundance of sampled data was computed by the following Yu and Yoo (2015). Biodiversity indices viz., Margalef species richness index (α) (Margalef, 1958), Simpson's diversity index (D) (Simpson, 1949), Peilou's evenness index (J') (Pielou, 1966) and Berger-Parker Dominance index (May, 1975) were computed using online freeware biodiversity calculator to reveal the species richness, diversity, evenness and dominance of mantid species in different blocks of Coimbatore district. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A total of 227 mantids were collected during the exploratory survey conducted for a period of six months from 10 blocks of Coimbatore district. Morphological characterization revealed the occurrence of 16 species of mantids belonging to 13 genera under 7 families. Among the families, Gonypetidae was dominant and represented by four species followed by Eremiaphilidae, Hymenopodidae, Mantidae (three species each), Amophoscelidae, Toxoderidae and Empusidae (One species each). Among the species, Euantis sapulchra Fabricius (Family: Hymenopodidae) (21.1 %) was abundant followed by Humbertiella similis Giglio-Tos (19.8 %), Humbertiella nigrospinosa Sjostedt (17.6 %) and Elmantis tricomaliae Saussure (13.2 %) (Family: Gonypetidae). Above results are in accordance with the findings of Hiral et al. (2018); Dwari & Amal (2018); Patel et al. (2018). They reported the dominance of Mantidae and Hymenopodidae in terrestrial ecosystems. Srikumar et al. (2018) reported occurrence of eight species of mantis from the tea plantations of Tamil Nadu. However, in the present study no mantid species was observed in the tea plantations of Anaimalai block of Coimbatore district. This may be because of the use of pesticides or alterations in the climatic conditions (Battiston and Fontana 2010). The mantid species, Euantissa pulchra was noticed in crops like paddy, sorghum, pulses, cotton, sugarcane, coconut, banana, citrus, curry leaf and ornamental plants. Whereas, some species were observed only in specific crop ecosystems like Cheddikulama straminea in ornamental plants; Didymocorypha lanceolata, Schizocephala bicornis and Parathespis humbertiana in forage crops; Humbertiella indica in mango and Gongylus gongylodes in medicinal plants. According to Soomro et al. (2013), Humbertiella indica resemble bark and prefers to colonize trees. Similarly, Schizocephala bicornis mimics like stick and prefers grassland ecosystem (Mukherjee et al., 1995). From the above observations it is evident that a particular species inhabits specific microhabitat because of its camouflage ability to protect itself from their enemies. Among the garden land crops surveyed, maximum number of species was recorded in coconut (6 species) followed by forage crops (4), sorghum (3), cotton (3), sugarcane (3), mango (3), banana (3), ornamental plants (3) and teak (3). In crops like maize, cocoa, arecanut, papaya, jack, amla, curry leaf, jasmine and medicinal plants occurrence of only one species was observed. Abundance of mantids was higher in coconut ecosystem (57 Nos.) followed by mango, cotton (21 each), ornamentals (17) and teak (16) which reveals that majority of praying mantis prefer unaltered ecosystems viz., trees, ornamental plants and organic field conditions. Elmantis tricomaliae was observed in nine out of 10 locations surveyed followed by Humbertiella nigrospinosa, Humbertiella similis (8 locations) and Euantissa pulchra (5). Maximum number of mantid species was recorded in Perianayakkanpalayam (PPM) (13 species) (Margalef Index (MI) = 2.77) followed by Thondamuthur (TDM) (7 species) (MI = 1.91), Annur (ANR) (MI = 1.2) and Kinathukadavu (KKD) (MI = 1.2) (5 species in each location). In Anaimalai (ANA), only two species of mantids were recorded. Simpson's diversity index varies from 0 to 1. Increase in the value of index indicates decrease in diversity and vice-versa of species. Simpson's index indicated higher mantid diversity in PPM (0.154) and TDM (0.13) and lower in ANA (0.43). According to Berger-Parker index of dominance, Humbertiella similis was dominant in ANA, KRA, MDU, POL; Humbertiella nigrospinosa dominant in ANR, KKD; Euantissa pulchra in PPM, TDM and Elmantis tricomaliae in PRU. Peilou's evenness index showed higher species evenness in Anamalai (0.99) and lower in Madukkaraiblock (0.82).