Mantidfly - Dicromantispa sayi

Moved

… Aaron Schusteff, 21 August, 2013 - 12:22am

Wow!! Great life history series!

The images of the exarate pupa, pharate adult, and eclosion are so neat to see!

Regarding species ID, the lack of apical wing spots beyond the pterostigma and lack of darkened cross-vein 2ra-rp on the wings rules out Dicromantispa interrupta. The tri-colored antennae and overall color pattern suggest it's of the southern-affinity form of D. sayi (i.e. the old "Mantispa sayi") that extends from the southern US to Costa Rica and Panama. For more details on that, see 4th paragraph and beyond of remarks accompanying the post below:

Presumably the unusually bright coloration is due to it being newly emerged and teneral. (Something very few people get to see!)

Some images of other interesting life history stages for mantispids are collected below, to complement yours here:

1) Females laying large numbers of eggs while walking forward waving her abdomen left-and-right:

2) Mantispid larvae attached to pedicel of a spider, awaiting opportunity to enter an egg sac upon its production:

2) Individual larvae:

… Aaron Schusteff, 21 August, 2013 - 12:18am

Moved

Moved from Leptomantispa pulchella.

… Jeff Hollenbeck, 12 May, 2007 - 1:04pm

#89535 Identification – Mantispidae sp. (?Dicromantispa sayi)

Identification. This is a very nice series of photos. Unfortunately I'm not too sure on the identification. It is not Leptomantispa pulchella. My best guess is Dicromantispa sayi -- which would go for the entire series of photos.

… John D. Oswald, 11 May, 2007 - 12:59pm

Male

I believe that this is a male and the genitalia stick out on teneral males. Some of those parts will remain visible from certain angles, all of the time.
The teneral female in the sister sp., that you identified is here. This assumes that the genders are similar in both species of this genus.

If you are not subscribed to this image, I will have to send you an email.
Thanks for all of your help!

UPDATE: Gender confirmed via email. Dr. Oswald says:
"Hi Robert,

Yes, I’d agree that the specimen here is a male.

Cheers,

John

P.S. Nice emergence series…!"

Here are some links that he included in his message:

Lacewing Digital Library: http://lacewing.tamu.edu/

Bibliography of the Neuropterida: http://lacewing.tamu.edu/Biblio/Main

Neuropterida Species of the World: http://lacewing.tamu.edu/SpeciesCatalog/Main

… Bob Biagi, 27 February, 2019 - 5:52pm

Moved to species page.

Identification based on existing image in guide. Perhaps Dr. Oswald will confirm or refute at some point. Outstanding series, Jeff!

… Eric R. Eaton, 18 December, 2006 - 1:19pm