For the identification of insects and other fauna and flora of South Africa.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Flower Mantis (Harpagomantis tricolor) Hymenopodidae

An update of the Flower Mantis (Harpagomantis tricolor): he has now lost his curled up body, got his first wings and is very pretty. The danger is of him flying away when I feed him.
This is exactly what he did on day and I was so sad it happened as I was hoping to get pictures of him into adulthood. Maybe I will be lucky enough to find another one.
In searching for him, I found another strange one. Below: Cone-headed Mantis Family Empusidae
I have never seen so many different species of Mantis as I do not living back in the bush. Some of them have very larh forefeet and others not. Below: Stick Mantis (Hoplocoryphella grandis) Family Thespidae
This one was very long and slender and someone mentioned that they do not think they have ones which look the same as this in the USA. Have you seen one like this?
These are plentiful and have a very disctinctive white mark on their heads. Unfortunately my book does not give the names of most of these.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The slender one is Comspothespis sp., very unusual and mysterious genus.