Mantis identification

Request help to identify insects or other creatures. Please post the location that the insect you want to identify came from, this will help greatly in species determination.
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lamprima2
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Mantis identification

Post by lamprima2 »

Found this female in my backyard (Encinitas, California).
We are supposed to have a few local species, M.religiosa, and a Chinese mantis.
Can anyone tell the species?
DSC_8853 INet.jpg
DSC_8853 INet.jpg (523.65 KiB) Viewed 327 times
DSC_8790 INet.jpg
DSC_8790 INet.jpg (721.29 KiB) Viewed 327 times
?
Chuck
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Re: Mantis identification

Post by Chuck »

The short wings rule out religosa. Most of the Chinese mantis are bi-color.

It looks like either California mantis or Arizona mantis; I've not researched the identifiers for either. Here's images from San Diego County of mantids https://www.inaturalist.org/observation ... n_id=48111

There's a glitch in iNaturalist that when selecting Encinitas, it selects only the county park, so I had to go bigger (SD County).
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kevinkk
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Re: Mantis identification

Post by kevinkk »

Chinese mantis- Tenodera sinensis and the European Mantis religosa are both introduced species, I've raised many sinensis, because those are the ones sold at nurseries for pest control, they always have had a brown color, what ever you have is probably a native.
I'd hang on to her and she may attract a male, or already be fertile.
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lamprima2
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Re: Mantis identification

Post by lamprima2 »

Chuck and kevinkk,
This is almost certainly an Arizona mantis - Stagmomantis limbata:
there are dark marks on tegmina, while dark stripes on the dorsal side
of the abdomen (characteristic of S.californica) are absent.
Thank you both as always!
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kevinkk
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Re: Mantis identification

Post by kevinkk »

Mantids are always interesting, I've released hundreds here at home, but on the Oregon coast, they never got out of L3 outdoors.
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