“Mantis Movie Generates Buzz"

“We’ve done ants,” said some filmic Big Cheese
“Then the spiders, what’s next? Maybe fleas?”
Thus answered his stooge,
"Praying mantis--but huge!"
“That’s it! ‘Deadly Mantis!’ Script, please!"

Paul Truster

And so, The Deadly Mantis (Nathan Juran; 1957) was, um...greenlit.