There are more than 2,400 species across 460 genera and 33 families in the Mantodea order
This photo was taken while walking about my backyard. I had just picked a few blackberries, and I was looking to see if I needed to prune the apple tree. That’s when I saw this Carolina mantis trying to hide from me in the lowest branches of the trees. I’ve always been fascinated by mantises, so I ran inside to grab my camera so I could take a photo. As I went to line up the shot, it kept crawling over and under the branches. I decided to shoot the photo from the ground up as it was making its next move. That’s what you see here, the mantis looking over the branch to see the camera staring back at him.
The Carolina mantis is a species of praying mantis. Its scientific name is Stagmomantis carolina. This species belongs to the Mantodea order which contains all species of praying mantis. There are more than 2,400 species across 460 genera and 33 families. Like many species of mantis, sexual cannibalism is a common occurrence for the Carolina mantis. Nearly 25% of intersexual encounters results in cannibalism. This involves the female eating the male.
Carolina mantises are identified by their brown, gray, or green color. They are great at camouflage in the leafy and woody environments that they thrive in. The nymphs of this species are able to adjust their color to match the environments they are in at the time of molting. As they move through the instar stages, they are able to change their color with each molt until they become an adult.
Both adult male and female Carolina mantis have a dark-colored dot on each of their forewings. This dot can be hard to see on the brown colored morphs.
As the Carolina mantis grows, it is able to change its color when it molts
Did you know?
- That mantises were thought to have supernatural powers by the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Assyrians.
- Carolina mantises are found throughout the Americas from the United States of America south to Brazil.
- Praying mantises reproduce through an egg capsule called an ootheca that is attached to a stick.
- The closest relatives to the praying mantis are termites and cockroaches.
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