Bug Love
Location: Missouri
November 20, 2010 2:38 pm
I took these photo of a lovely pair of praying mantises mating in the garden bed. The male seems to be of a rather unusual color morph. I regret to say I did not stay long enough to discover the result of the relationship, or whether the male survived the encounter. I believe they may be Carolina mantises (stagmomantis carolina), but I’m not sure.
Signature: Helen
Mating Mantids
Hi Helen,
Sadly, there is not enough detail in your image for us to conclusively identify the species, but the Carolina Mantis is a possibility.
¶ Posted 28 November 2010 § ‡ ° Tagged: bug love Thought you might like the pics.
Immature Spiny Flower Mantis
Thought you might like the pics.
Location: Durban, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
November 25, 2010 12:34 pm
I spotted this little critter sitting in a flower bush outside my backdoor. I believe its an Immature Spiny Flower Mantis (Pseudocreobotra Ocellata) – hope thats right! In one of the pics, its chewing on a bee! Beautiful little prey mantis.
Signature: Ryan
Immature Spiny Flower Mantis
Dear Ryan,
The Spiny Flower Mantis from South Africa is one of the most spectacular of the numerous Preying Mantis species found around the world, and we are lucky to be able to post your awesome photographs. We are thrilled that we can also tag your letter as Food Chain because of the image where the immature Spiny Flower Mantis is feeding upon a bee. We are not certain how to distinguish Pseudocreobotra ocellata from Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii, and the Zooillogix website doesn’t provide any description.
Spiny Flower Mantis eats Bee
¶ Posted 26 November 2010 § ‡ ° Tagged: food chain Preying Mantis
Location: Somerville, MA
November 20, 2010 3:28 pm
Hi – I found this in my front yard in Somerville, MA on a perennial sunflower. I identified it as a preying mantis that shouldn’t be this far North, so I was wondering what you had to say about it. I found a second mantis on the same day that looked totally different that I couldn’t even locate in a guidebook. Will submit that one as well. It was late September, early afternoon.
Signature: Jess
Male Chinese Mantis
Second Somerville MA Preying Mantis
Location: Somerville, MA
November 20, 2010 3:29 pm
This one was fat and slow and brown all over. I could have picked it up and it wouldn’t have batted a buggy eyelash. I didn’t pick it up, btw.
Signature: Jess
Female European Mantis
Hi Jess,
We took the liberty of combining your two emails into one posting. We agree that you probably have two different species of Mantids here, but the most obvious difference between them is that the smaller individual is a male and the larger individual is a female. We believe both of your individuals are introduced species. We believe the male is a Chinese Mantis, Tenodera aridifolia sinensis. According to BugGuide, it is: “Tan to pale green. Forewings tan with green along front margin. Compound eyes chocolate-brown at sunset, pale tan soon after sunrise and during the day.“ BugGuide also indicates it is “Widely distributed in the U.S. due to the availability of commercially purchased egg-cases.“ We found a photo of a female European Mantis, Mantis religiosa, on BugGuide that is a very close match to your female, and BugGuide indicates: “From “National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders” (1), p. 397: This mantid was accidentally introduced in 1899 on nursery stock from southern Europe. At a time when Gypsy Moth Caterpillars were burgeoning in the eastern states, it was recognized almost immediately as a beneficial predator. However, mantids are so cannibalistic that they are rarely numerous enough to have much effect in depleting caterpillar populations.“ Any experts in Mantis identification are welcomed to confirm or correct our species identifications.
Male Chinese Mantis
Thank you so much! This has been somewhat of a local mystery now – to the point of one friend begging me to put these pups up on your site. I’m sure you can feel a general collective sigh of relief at our bugs having identities!
¶ Posted 22 November 2010 § ‡ ° cocoons on pecan tree
Location: Cottonwood, Arizona
November 15, 2010 12:48 pm
Found several of these on our peecan tree and wondered if they will harm the tree.
Signature: Cathey in Cottonwood AZ
Mantis Oothica
Hi Cathey,
this is the Oothica or egg case of a Preying Mantis. We cannot tell you what species this is without doing some research, but perhaps one of our readers knows which Arizona species has an Oothica that looks like this.
How AWESOME!!!! Thank you!!!
Cathey
¶ Posted 16 November 2010 § Eggs ‡ ° your site
November 3, 2010 10:55 am
This site is just amazing. I love the many mantis pictures and .. well alll them Bugs.
I forge Bugs in a smithy (though i might try unicorns if I want money) and the pictures really really help me visualise these amazing creatures.
Thank you.
Signature: jack frost
Hi Jack,
Thanks for the compliment. We wish you would send us a few photos of your sculptures.
¶ Posted 03 November 2010 § ‡ ° Tagged: fanmail ants swarming over mantis
Location: Albuquerque, NM
October 25, 2010 8:51 pm
Hi,
Thanks for identifying the blister beetle picture I sent in a few weeks ago. Today I found a mantis being swarmed by ants on the north side of Albuquerque, NM. The mantis was struggling and flopping around a bit but I couldn’t tell if the ants were biting it or not. Is this a common occurrence? I found one flickr image of ants feeding on a dead and somewhat dismembered mantis in Spain, but no other information. I also didn’t find any example of this type of observation on your site. My hypothesis is that the mantis was sluggish from the cold morning and overpowered by the ants. Thanks very much!
Signature: Matt
Ants Attack Mantis
Hi Matt,
We suspect that this Mantis may have been injured, though perhaps you are correct that it was just sluggish from the cool weather. Ants often forage in hoards and they will not hesitate to begin gathering food for the colony from a still living creature. We wish your photo had a higher resolution and that we were able to ascertain the identity of the ant species. They look very small and perhaps they are nonnative. Invasive Ant species like the Argentine Ants in Southern California and the Gulf States are severely affecting biodiversity by replacing native species and we cannot underestimate the long term effects they may have on sensitive ecosystems.
Ants Attack Mantis
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for getting back to me. I’ve attached the full resolution pictures in case the ants can be identified. By the way, is the mantis a Mediterranean Mantis? Thanks!
Matt
On a second look at mantis pictures, it looks more like a California Mantid, Stagmomantis californica. Is this right?
Matt
Ants Attack Mantis
Thanks Matt. We are inclined to agree that this does appear to be a California Mantis, or possibly the closely related Stagmomantis limbata which is profiled on BugGuide. At any rate, the Mantis is a female.
Mating Mantis’
Location: Covina, CA
October 16, 2010 9:55 am
Hey there Bugman, I thought you’d appreciate a couple pictures I took of this pair in my back yard.
Signature: Mark P.
Mating Preying Mantids
Hi Mark,
Thanks for this interesting photo of a pair of Preying Mantids mating.
¶ Posted 16 October 2010 § ‡ ° Tagged: bug love Mating Praying Mantis
Location: El Dorado County, California
October 15, 2010 11:37 pm
I know this bug is a praying mantis. I was just surprised to see them in such an ”uh hum” embarassing position on my window. Perhaps your readers will find it interesting too. Obviously, as I just learned, the brown one is a male and the large green one is a female. They are still together for about 12 hrs now. I wonder if she will eat him when they are done. There also was another male nearby – I guess waiting to see if she will need another partner. He watched for several hours before deciding to fly away.
Signature: Sexy Bugs
Mating Preying Mantids
Dear Sexy Bugs,
We wanted to identify your species so we tried BugGuide unsuccessfully, but we did discover this mating frenzy of a an unidentified Mantis Quintet from California on bugGuide.
¶ Posted 16 October 2010 § ‡ ° Tagged: bug love 
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