Appearance

Appearance

Adults are about 2.6–3.6 in (65–92 mm) long, with females usually larger. They may be green or brown and have a long, narrow thorax, narrow wings, and a deep orange patch between the front-leg bases.

Look-alikes

Where it lives

Typical habitats

• old fields
• meadows and tall grass
• shrub edges

Range

It is native to eastern and southern Asia and introduced in the continental United States. U.S. records are concentrated in the East, including the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Preferred conditions

Adults hunt from tall herbs, shrubs, and field-edge vegetation where other insects are abundant.

Behavior

Diet

This mantis is an ambush predator. It watches for moving prey and seizes insects with spiny front legs.

Activity

Its wide-set compound eyes provide overlapping vision, and the head can turn far to follow prey without moving the whole body.

Overwintering

Eggs overwinter inside the ootheca. The young hatch as wingless nymphs and grow through repeated molts without a pupal stage.

Life cycle

Breeding season

In the northeastern United States, adults occur in late summer and fall.

Nest

The female surrounds many eggs with a foamy case called an ootheca and attaches it to a stem or twig. The case hardens as it dries.

Connected species

Parasitoids

• Podagrion mantis

  This wasp develops in the mantis egg case in northeastern U.S. fields.

Conservation

IUCN Red List

NENot Evaluated·Not yet assessed