What kind of mantis is it?
It may be the largest of the flower-mimicking mantises. At rest it is pale green, beige, or brown, looking like a dry petal or a piece of plant.
How to identify it
- Red, blue, purple, white, and black markings are hidden on the broad inner part of the front legs.
- There is a cone-shaped crest on the head.
- There are leaf-like lobes on the legs and body.
Size comparison
Body length runs from the head to the tip of the abdomen, using the maximum of the larger sex. The bars only show relative size, so they don't match real size on screen.
Look-alikes
- Red, blue, purple, white, and black pattern inside the front legs
- Cone-shaped crest on the head
- Leaf-like lobes on the legs and abdomen
- Very thin, long pronotum
- Wide abdomen: violin-shaped from above
- Leaf-like lobes on thin legs
- Black and pink pattern inside the front legs
Versus the wandering violin mantis: the wandering violin mantis, in the same family (Empusidae), has a much thinner body and a longer pronotum.
Range
It lives in hot, dry scrubland in East Africa. According to care sources it needs high daytime temperatures of 30–40°C.
Behavior
When threatened, it raises its front legs and spreads them outward and opens its wings to look bigger while showing the bright colors inside its front legs. This behavior is called a threat display.
It mostly catches flying insects such as flies and moths.
Fun facts
- It is known as a hard mantis to keep because it is easily stressed.
Body length differs a lot between sources, so we give a range.