What kind of mantis is it?
The species' official Korean name is just "samagwi" (mantis), which is easy to confuse with the word for mantises as a whole. To refer to this species alone, people sometimes call it "chamsamagwi" (true mantis).
It's in the same genus as the Chinese mantis, so it looks very similar. The body is a little thinner and the pronotum looks longer.
How to identify it
- In a living specimen, the membrane between the bases of the front legs is orange (yellow in the Chinese mantis). This works for nymphs too.
- The base of the hindwing is mostly clear. Brown-form individuals sometimes have a brown blotch toward the back of the hindwing.
- The two thick veins along the front edge of the forewing are darker brown than the other veins.
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
- Membrane between front-leg bases is orange (flip it over)
- Hindwing base is clear
- Two thick leading-edge forewing veins are dark brown
- Body and pronotum slimmer than the Chinese mantis
- Membrane between front-leg bases is yellow (flip it over)
- Hindwing base dark brown with smoky blotches
- Long, thick pronotum
- 14–20 white spines on the front coxa
Versus the Chinese mantis: the Chinese mantis has a yellow membrane between the front-leg bases and a dark brown hindwing base. Size varies a lot with how well fed the mantis is, so it isn't a reliable guide.
Where and when to find it
You can see it in trees, bushes, and grassland across Korea. It has been collected at rice paddy edges, coastal dune grass, and parks too. Both adults and egg cases are common in trees and bushes.
The young hatch from late May to mid-June, and adults can be seen from mid-August to late October.
Egg case
A long, thin spindle shape 22–40 mm long and 10–14 mm wide. A light brown outer wall is covered with a beige foam layer, and it's attached by a drawn-out tip. It's clearly different in shape from the Chinese mantis's round barrel-shaped egg case.
Behavior
It waits for prey in sunny grassland or in trees.
Fun facts
- It sometimes builds the egg case wrapped around a thin branch, not only on flat surfaces.
"Chamsamagwi" is a widely used nickname, but it is not the official Korean name.