I friend of mine one of these at school recently, during a class break (a Biology class --- go figure). Since he's a Junior Entymologist (my friend, not the bug) with lots of experience with these things, he just reached out and picked it up with his bare hands.
Not surprisingly, it was an ornry critter, and tried to "scythe" my friend's fingers to get free. Eventually it started trying to cut it's own legs instead (by which my friend was gasping it), and we decided to just let the little beast go.

Well I'm quite a bug nerd as well. I catch them with my bare hands too, along with most bugs. The trick is the be gentle, and let the mantis go where it wants, then it doesn't get aggressive :)

Well come to think of it, the guy who grabbed the Mantis wasn't being very "gentle"...

It never stops amazing me how you can do ink drawings like this with no gesture drawings. :) Beautiful work.

Eee! Mantis! Very nicely done. :)