What kind of mantis is it?
The body is white to cream with pale green stripes, sometimes tinged yellow, pink, or red. There are spike-like projections on the underside of the abdomen.
How to identify it
- Each forewing has a spiral eyespot mixing black, yellow, and green.
- There are spike-like projections on the underside of the abdomen.
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
- Spiral eyespot on the forewings (black, yellow, green)
- Spiky lobes along the abdomen edge
- Black-rimmed yellow eyespot on the forewings
- Cream and pale green body; a small flower mantis
Versus the jeweled flower mantis: the jeweled flower mantis also has eyespots on its forewings, but they are black-rimmed yellow ovals, and it lives in Asia.
Range
It lives in places with flowers and shrubs in southern and eastern Africa. There is little research on its habitat in detail.
Behavior
When threatened, it spreads its forewings to show the eyespots.
Young nymphs curl the abdomen up and startle predators with a single eyespot on the back.
It catches flying insects and spiders.
Some care sources give its size as "4–5 inches," but compared with other sources that looks like a mistake for cm. The scientific name is spelled both wahlbergii and wahlbergi.