|
Species Stagmomantis carolina - Carolina Mantis
Classification Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Dictyoptera (Mantids and Cockroaches)
Suborder Mantodea (Mantids)
Family Mantidae
Genus Stagmomantis
Species carolina (Carolina Mantis)
Other Common Names Carolina Mantid Size Adults are 48-57 mm long (including wings). Identification Head and thorax almost as long as the body. Antennae about half as long as middle legs. Pale green to brownish grey, often inconspicuous on vegetation. Males usually brown, females green or brown. Wings do not extend to tip of abdomen, especially in female. (Females apparently flightless, or nearly so.) Abdomen of female strongly widened in middle. Tegmina (outer wings) are broad, reaching apical third of the abdomen, with a stigmatic (dark) black patch. Range New Jersey to Illinois, south to Florida, Texas, Arizona, and through Mexico to Central America Habitat Meadows and gardens, on herbs, low shrubs, and flower heads. Season Mantids are most commonly seen in late summer and early fall. August-frost (eastern North Carolina). Food Butterflies, moths, flies, small wasps and bees, true bugs and caterpillars. Often considered beneficial, mantids will eat almost anything they can catch and therefore do not differentiate whether their meal is beneficial to man or not. Life Cycle Eggs overwinter and hatch in early spring. Adults are mature by late summer and usually die by winter, however there have been cases of them living longer in Florida (Price 1984, Prete et al 1999). Remarks The Carolina Mantid is the State insect of South Carolina! Print References Milne, National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders, pages 397-398, plate 302 (1)
Deyrup, Florida's Fabulous Insects, pages 42-43 (2)
Arnett, American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico, page 191 (3)
Salsbury, Insects in Kansas, p. 80--photos of green and brown phases (4)
Helfer, How to Know the Grasshoppers and Allies, p. 33, fig. 51--shows male and female (5)
Swan and Papp, The Common Insects of North America, p. 69, fig.28--adult and egg case (6)
Brimley, Insects of North Carolina, p. 18 (7)
Lutz, Field Book of Insects, 3rd edition, p. 67, plate 80--female and egg mass (8)Internet References University of Florida Entomology Dept. PDF key to Florida mantids by P.M. Choate
Herper.com list of mantid species in the U.S., with breakdown of species by state
Works Cited | 2. | Florida's Fabulous Insects
By Mark Deyrup, Brian Kenney, Thomas C. Emmel |  |
| 4. | Insects in Kansas
By Glenn A. Salsbury and Stephan C. White | |
| 6. | The Common Insects of North America
By Lester A. Swan, Charles S. Papp | |
|
|
|
|
