The praying mantids (Order Mantodea, Class Insecta) are a group of over 2500 carnivorous polyneopteran insects distributed in tropical and subtropical habitats of the world, from the rainforest to the desert ground. The order Mantodea comprises over 20 families, out of which the family Mantidae is the largest one and consists of almost 50% of the total mantids described so far. In this compilation, the family Mantidae was grouped into most acceptable 21 subfamilies: Amelinae (148 spp.), Angelinae (55 spp.), Antemninae (2 spp.), Choeradodinae (8 spp.), Chroicopterinae (70 spp.), Compsothespinae (14 spp.), Danuriinae (29 spp.), Deroplatyinae (20 spp.), Dystactinae (17 spp.), Heterochaetinae (11 spp.), Mantinae (420 spp.), Mellierinae (7 spp.), Miomantinae (187 spp.), Orthoderinae (11 spp.), Oxyothespinae (49 spp.), Photinainae (75 spp.), Phyllothelyinae (15 spp.), Schizocephalinae (1 spp.), Stagmatopterinae (45 spp.), Stagmomantinae (29 spp.), Vatinae (48 spp.) consisting 1261 species/subspecies. In India, 89 species of Mantidae are reported so far. The global distribution of each species was given.