What is Mantophasmatidae?
{{taxobox | name = Gladiators | fossil_range = [[Jurassic]]–Recent | image = Mantophasma zephyra Zompro et al 2002.jpg | image_caption = ''Mantophasma zephyra'' | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | phylum = [[Arthropod]]a | classis = [[Insect]]a | subclassis = [[Pterygota]] | infraclassis = [[Neoptera]] | superordo = [[Exopterygota]] | ordo = '''Notoptera''' | subordo = '''Mantophasmatodea''' | familia = '''Mantophasmatidae''' }} The [[insect]] [[Family (biology)|family]] '''Mantophasmatidae''' is the sole family in its [[Order (biology)|order]]. It is a group of African carnivorous insects discovered in 2002.<ref>{{cite book |title= Essentials of conservation biology|url= https://archive.org/details/essentialsofcons0000prim_r2u2|edition=4th|page=[https://archive.org/details/essentialsofcons0000prim_r2u2/page/62 62]|last=Primack|first=Richard B.|publisher=Sinauer Associates, Inc|year=2006|isbn=978-0-87893-720-2}}</ref> The most common vernacular name for this order is '''gladiators''', but it is not well known under any name. Their modern centre of [[endemism]] is western [[South Africa]] and [[Namibia]], although a relict population and [[Eocene]] fossils suggest a wider ancient distribution. Members of the order are wingless even as [[adult]]s, making them relatively difficult to identify. They resemble a mix between [[Mantis|praying mantids]] and [[phasmid]]s. Molecular evidence indicates that they are most closely related to a family known as the [[Grylloblattidae]].<ref>{{cite journal |author= Cameron S.L; Barker S.C. & Whiting M.F. |year=2006 |title=Mitochondrial genomics and the new insect order Mantophasmatodea |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=38 |pages=274–279 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2005.09.020 |pmid=16321547 |issue=1}}</ref> The mantophasmids were originally described from old museum specimens that found in Namibia (''Mantophasma zephyra'') and Tanzania (''M. subsolana''), and from a 45-million-year-old specimen of [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] [[amber]] (''Raptophasma kerneggeri''). The most rec