What kind of mantis is it?
The wide pronotum looks like a single leaf, so it can resemble both living and dead leaves. The Korean name, which means "hooded shield mantis," is used for the whole genus (Choeradodis).
How to identify it
- The pronotum flares out wide sideways like a shield or hood.
- Dark green on the back, pale green underneath.
- There's a black eyespot on the front femur.
Look-alikes
- Pronotum flared wide like a shield or hood
- Black eyespot on the front femur
- Pronotum wide like a shield (pointed corners in females)
- Wings with a leaf-vein pattern
Versus the giant dead leaf mantis: the giant dead leaf mantis also has a shield-like pronotum, but it's shaped like a brown dead leaf and lives in Southeast Asia.
Range
It lives on leaves in lowland tropical rainforest in Central and South America. It settles next to leaves that look like it.
Behavior
When disturbed, it trembles slightly like a leaf in the wind.
It uses the black eyespots on its front legs in threat displays.
Fun facts
- Of 84 shield mantises collected in Costa Rica, 60 had 5 species of liverwort, 23 species of lichen, and fungi growing on the pronotum and forewings. It was the first record of leaf-dwelling mosses and liverworts found on an insect's body.
Claims online say "large individuals have eaten lizards and hummingbirds," but we couldn't confirm the original source, so we left them out.