on a summer collection of mantids (insecta: mantodea) from lorestan province with nine new records

In late summer 2016, the first author collected 34 specimens from nine species ofmantodea from lorestan, chiefly kuhdasht at the eastern part of the province. althoughnine species were determined as new records for this part of the country, more searchesin different seasons may lead to finding more species even new ones because this groupof insects poorly studied in iran especially in mountainous western part of the country. itis argued that much more diversity from a short time collecting effort is an evidence ofour poor knowledge of the fauna of iranian mantids. the present work is the first studyon this region of lorestan province which led to reporting nine species for the first timenamely, blepharopsis mendica, empusa hedenborgii (empusidae), ameles persa, bolivariabrachyptera, mantis religiosa, microthespis dmitriewi, oxyothespis persica, rivetina caucasica(mantidae), iris oratoria (tarachodidae).