Subject: Could you please help me put a name to this mantis?
Location: Costa Rica, Heredia Province mountains
July 31, 2012 9:13 am
Hi.
Found this beautiful mantis with moss camouflage in the north part of the Costa Rican Central Valley (mountains).
Could you please provide me with a scientific name?
Thanks
Signature: Oscar Blanco
Hi Oscar,
Your photos are stunning and we imagine a Mantis expert should have no problem with a species identity thanks to your specific location information. The best we could come up with in a short time is this similar looking Moss Mimic Mantis from Costa Rica on the Minibeast Wildlife Rainforest Encounters website (with a comment that identifies the genus as Pseudoacanthops) and image on a French Website Elevage de Mantes Exotiques et Francaisesthat looks like a perfect match to your mantis. Alas, we do not speak French, though Costa Rica is mentioned several times in the comments as is the genus name Pseudoacanthops. Perhaps one of our readers will supply some useful information. If you ever learn the answer, please let us know.
Pogonogaster tristani Rehn, 1928
*1918
Thanks for the identification.
Hello Bugman.
I would like to submit more information on Pogonogaster tristani, since I looked it up thanks to help from Mantis experts.
It turns out, it’s a rediscovery.
In fact, there where no images available of this species, not even in the book by Rehn, which only had a text description.
And there was one specimen captured by JF Tristan (thus the name) in May 1906 and deposited in the collection of Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia under the catalog number of types 5353 (REHN, 1918; OTTE, 1978).
I have more pictures of this species, including one that won Best Photo of 2013-2014 on the Insect News Network.
You can see more images of this beautiful species in my website http://www.micromacrophoto.com under the section of Mantis.
Furthermore, a paper is being published on the rediscovery, where the original author, Julián A. Salazar-E, an entomologist from Colombia, graciously included me as first author because of the photos (and video! – find it on my website) I took of this rediscovered species.
I will provide a link as soon as it’s published in his science magazine, which will be in a few days.
Sincerely,
Oscar Blanco.
http://www.micromacrophoto.com
Thanks so much for this exciting update Oscar, and congratulations on your award winning image.
Hi,
I just find this page by pure chance, and I’m glad to read/see pictures and name of this Mantis. I found on of this Mantis in the cloudy forest next to Monteverde (Santa Helena ?) in Costa Rica in 2009, the one picture posted on the French forum.
I tried to identify for a long time without success, and finally here it is.
Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures.
Alex