Where Is It Illegal to Kill a Praying Mantis?

According to Snopes, there has never been any federal or state law prohibiting mantis whacking. Another web truth-hound posts elsewhere that mantis killing is legal, even in Connecticut, where the praying mantis is the state insect. Why the myth?

Is it still illegal to kill a praying mantis?

Since the 1950s, a rumor has circulated that killing a praying mantis carries a fine. ... Mantises are not protected by law, nor has there ever been such a law or statute at the federal, state, or city level in the United States. There are no penalties other than in folkloric traditions from many millennia past.

Where is it illegal to keep a praying mantis?

The majority of mantids in the world are in Asia, where many of them are endangered. For the most part, keeping a mantis that is not a native species of the US is illegal (except for the Chinese, European, and Narrow-winged mantids mentioned above).