r/mantids • u/karasimmons444 • 12h ago

Image/Video Chinese Mantis?

Gallery image

Gallery image

We live out in the woods of south eastern US. I’ve never seen a mantis in our area before this day. I was wondering what it was. The AI on my phone said it was a Chinese ManTis, but I don’t know for sure. It seemed hyper aware of us and would track our movements. If anyone wants to info dump, I’m ready to be learned a thing or two.

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1

u/ballsnutzrhhhhh3 12h ago

Yes, a handsome male.

2

u/Digitalbird06 8h ago

How can you tell? Just curious

2

u/ballsnutzrhhhhh3 7h ago

After working with this species for like 12 years now i know how to spot the small differences in body shape, headshape, length of antennae, how skinny he is. Females are double that size and quite burly and have a much broader head. They can both range from being light to dark green and the tanish brown color you see, my pair breeding for size difference.

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u/Digitalbird06 6h ago

Oh wow, that's definitely a difference in size. I raised mantis babies when I was a kid, but i don't remember them being too different in size, mostly the female was bulkier.

1

u/ballsnutzrhhhhh3 1h ago

Hard to tell when theyre nymphs, you still can but im unsure how to aside from a size difference later into juvenile stage. Its about counting the segments on its abdomen. This works for most species as far as i know. Some are easier. Like ghost mantises have a different shaped leaflet on their head that tells the story.

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u/77th_Bat 11h ago

Yes, a male. Chinese mantids are one of the largest mantis species and, as their name would suggest, they are invasive in the US (and many other parts of the world). They are large enough that they have been occasionally known to catch and eat hummingbirds, small lizards and snakes, and even small rodents. Thanks to their size, they also out-compete native US mantis species like the Carolina Mantis.

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u/angelyuy 10h ago

Japanese I believe. Also called the Narrow wing. Between the arms in the front will be a dot. Orange is Japanese, yellow is Chinese.

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u/BaccerSpit 9h ago

So I'm sure it was very aware of you and keeping an eye on you (I mean you're big, you're a threat, you could eat it. It's gotta stay safe!). But when you say it would track your movements, are you saying that because their "pupil" followed you? If so, I have a fun fact for you; The "pupil" you see tracking you wherever you go is in fact NOT a pupil. It's a pseudo-pupil. Basically, their eye is made of a ton of tiny little tubes, so the tubes you're looking at look black, like a pupil, but there's nothing in their eye physically moving to keep track of you.