She-Mantis

The She-Mantis was a fictional creature featured in the WB Network television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and appeared in the fourth episode of season one entitled "Teacher's Pet". When in human form, the She-Mantis was played by actress Musetta Vander.

Biography
Colloquially referred to as the "She-Mantis", this creature was a sentient, giant-sized praying mantis that possessed the ability to assume human features. One representative of this bizarre, insectoid race took on the visage of a beautiful woman and assumed the stolen identity of a retired teacher named Natalie French. As French, the She-Mantis sought out innocent virgins with whom to mate with. Once the chosen mate had succeeded in fertilizing her eggs, she would then kill them by cutting off their heads with her large serrated forearms. To facilitate her goals, Natalie French murdered Doctor Stephen Gregory, a biology teacher at Sunnydale High School. She then took his place as a substitute teacher and began hunting for prey amongst the male members of the student body.

Miss French proposed the idea of having a class project, creating faux praying mantis eggs out of Papier-mâché. When she asked for volunteers to help her with the project, every able-bodied male student in the classroom eagerly raised their hand. Natalie selected a boy named Blayne Moll to be her first helper. She invited him back to her home then drugged him, locking him up inside a cage in the basement along with several other victims.

Her next target was Xander Harris. She invited him to come to her house to help her out with the school project. When Xander arrived, she appeared before him wearing a provocative dress and offered him a martini. The drink was laced with a sedative that rendered Xander unconscious. She took him down below and locked him inside of a cage next to Blayne.

In the meantime, Xander's friends Willow Rosenberg, Rupert Giles and the vampire Slayer Buffy Summers learned the truth about Miss French and that she intended on killing Xander. Giles telephoned an old friend of his named Ferris Carlyle, a man who encountered a She-Mantis in the past. He told him that the only way to destroy one was to dismember them. Buffy researched the lives of praying mantisis and found that the high-pitched sounds emitted from bat sonar was known to disrupt a mantis' nervous system. They made a recording of bat sonar and went to Natalie's house. They broke in just as the creature had assumed its true form and was preparing to kill Xander. Giles distracted it with the bat sonar recording while Buffy dismembered her with a machete.

Notes & Trivia

 * The actual name of this particular creature is unknown. The term "She-Mantis" originated with Ferris Carlyle.


 * The She-Mantis has been compared to other mythological creatures such as Greek sirens or Celtic sea maidens.


 * Known in Latin texts as Kleptis Virgo, or, the Virgin Thief.