What kind of mantis is it?
Females are wingless and plump, with coal-black bodies and black-and-white striped legs. Males have wings and are thin, so they look very different.
How to identify it
- Females have a black body, black-and-white striped legs, and no wings.
- There's a pinkish-red mark inside the front legs.
- Young nymphs look like black ants.
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
- Black-and-white striped legs
- Jet-black, wingless body (female)
- Pinkish-red mark inside the front legs
- Gray-brown, dark brown, and black mottling blends into bark and lichen
- Long legs and flat body press against the trunk
Versus the neotropical bark mantises: neotropical bark mantises (genus Liturgusa) live in Central and South America, have gray-brown mottling, and have wings.
Range
It lives on the rough bark of eucalyptus trees in Australia.
Behavior
It sits still on the bark, then runs very fast when disturbed.
It uses the pinkish-red mark inside the front legs as a signal.
Fun facts
- Because it moves with its front legs raised like a boxer, it's called the "boxer mantis."
The idea that young nymphs look like ants is a comparison of their small size and color, not a mimicry confirmed by experiment. Older sources sometimes place it in another family (Amorphoscelidae).