Mantisfly

Moved

… Jonathan Hoskins, 12 September, 2020 - 9:53am

This one is a puzzler...seems to be a "misfit"

Counting as carefully as I could, I got 6 "wishbones" for both the left and the right forewing. That would typically indicate Leptomantispa pulchella...but the subtle gestalt of the colors here, and the fairly conspicuous "rumpling" of the pronotum is more suggestive of D. sayi.

My gut feeling (from gestalt) would go with D. sayi, which...among all the D. sayi and L. pulchella I've scrutinized over the past 5 years...would make this the only individual I can point to at the moment that doesn't conform to the "wishbones character" for separating these two species (see here for details).

Unfortunately, the primary character separating the two species can't be discerned here (i.e setae along dorsum of pronotum mainly clumped at ends for D. sayi vs. distributed more uniformly throughout for L. pulchella). To use that character, one needs a well-resolved, high-resolution profile view of the dorsum of the pronotum.

Of course, whichever it is...it's a really neat neuropteran! :-)

… Aaron Schusteff, 26 February, 2018 - 9:32pm

Male

I believe that this is a male. (abdomen tipped with two small dark knobs) That feature is a bit blurry in this image.
Furthermore, it may be possible that the males have (or may have) less wishbones in the wings. (in any species or some species)
Following your logic while considering the gender, makes me lean towards a male D. sayi for this guy, with the wrinkly neck.
See here:

… Bob Biagi, 22 February, 2019 - 7:04pm

Thanks, Aaron

We'll have to check and see if we took any other images that day.

… john and jane balaban, 26 February, 2018 - 10:37pm