What kind of mantis is it?
The largest of Korea's 8 mantis species. The biggest female among the specimens measured in the paper was 100.8 mm. Both green and brown forms exist, so color can't tell you the species.
It was listed in old Korean insect lists under the scientific name Tenodera aridifolia. That name has since been sorted out as referring to a different species of the tropics and subtropics, and Korea's Chinese mantis is Tenodera sinensis.
How to identify it
- If you flip a living one over, the membrane between the bases (coxae) of the front legs is yellow. This also works for late nymphs that don't have wings yet.
- When the wings are spread, the base of the hindwing is dark brown with a dark brown smoky pattern toward the back, so the whole wing looks mottled.
- The pronotum is long but thicker than the narrow-winged mantis's.
- There are 14–20 white cone-shaped spines on the upper edge of the front coxa. The narrow-winged mantis has 7–13.
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 yellow (flip it over)
- Hindwing base dark brown with smoky blotches
- Long, thick pronotum
- 14–20 white spines on the front coxa
- 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
Versus the narrow-winged mantis: the narrow-winged mantis has an orange membrane between the front-leg bases and clear hindwing bases. The size ranges overlap, so don't go by size.
Where and when to find it
You can see it all over Korea. It has adapted well to cities, suburbs, and stream banks, so you often meet it in park grass and bushes.
The young hatch from the egg case from mid-April to mid-May, earliest of Korea's mantises. Adults usually appear from mid-August, with records collected through early November.
Egg case
Barrel-shaped, about 30–42 mm long and 22–28 mm wide. It's beige to light brown, and a thick, air-filled foam layer covers the outside, so the chamber lines are not visible. It's attached to stones, tree trunks, and branches, sometimes wrapped around a thin branch.
Behavior
It waits for prey to come to it in sunny grass or bushes.
Fun facts
- In North America it's said to have first been found in 1896 at a plant nursery in Philadelphia. It seems to have crossed on nursery stock, and it is now widespread across North America.
The year it reached North America follows secondary sources.