Subject: Small California Mantis?
Location: Los Angeles, CA
April 2, 2017 1:02 pm
Dear Bugman,
I thought I would share this picture of a very tiny California Mantis (I think!) that was on my flowerpot in Highland Park a few days ago. For scale, the lip of the pot is a little less than 1cm.
I was lucky to be able to get close!
Thanks so much for your wonderful site!
Signature: Moira
Dear Moira,
This is definitely a Mantis, and we suspect it might be a hatchling California Mantis as we recently saw a hatchling in our own garden. Other Mantids found in Los Angeles might be imported European or Chinese Mantids, and those species are much larger than our native species. Were you by chance, in the past, the secretary of a homeowners alliance to which we belong?
Dear Bugman,
Thank you so much for the ID and for posting my photo!
By the way, no, I was not the secretary of the homeowners
alliance. (I’m a theatre professor and a puppeteer.)
Again, many thanks! Yours is one of my favorite sites to visit.
Moira