Africa Wild

Zebra Mantid Omomantis zebrata
Superfamily Mantoidea. Family Mantidae. Subfamily Omomantinae

© Michele Nel
Kruger National Park, Tamboti

© BluTuna
Kruger National Park, Crocodile Bridge

Description
A medium sized, slender, green mantid. Both sexes reach up to 6 cm in bodysize, where males stay a little more slender. The species belongs to the "normal type" and shows no morphological peculiarities such as a vertex elongation or lobes. The base color can reach from a light to a deep and shiny green to a turquoise-green. The upper side of the femura and the dorsal side of the pronotum are colored in a reddish brown. Characterized by coloration of fore wings, each decorated with diagonal dark brown stripes and a yellow spot surrounded by black. The habitus of Omomantis zebrata is rather gracile, rather strinking are the long and thin walking legs.
The sexes of juveniles can easily be distinguished by counting abdominal segments, the females have 6 of them, the males 8.

Distribution
Found in Eastern Cape and Gauteng, to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi and East Africa.


Links:
http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/ ... ID=1184199

Common Ghost Mantis Phyllocrania paradoxa
Superfamily Hymenopoidea. Family Hymenopodidae. Subfamily Phyllocraniinae

© steamtrainfan

© steamtrainfan
Garden in Pretoria

Description
Phyllocrania paradoxa is a mid-sized species reaching up to 5 cm in bodylength in both sexes (without wings). The variability of color is characteristic for this species, reaching from almost black to sandy yellow and green. Nontheless the animals are not plain-colored, but show a faint pattern of stipes and dots, which is only visible to the closer look. The habitus with its long, jagged vertex elongation and lobe-like appendages on the abdomen and the walking legs is based on a leaf. The veins of the wings, which are mostly transparent, help with this imitation.
Phyllocrania paradoxa is easily sexed. First the males have 8 abdominal sements, the females have only 6. A further distinguishing mark is the "crown" (vertex elongation). In females, it is rather wide, not jagged and shows a slight median bend to the left. The male's crown is longer, more slender and jagged. In addition, the male's wings reach over the abdomen, which is not the case in females. The antannea of the male are longer then the female's, too. The sexual dimorphism of the crown can be already used in larvae.
Ghost mantids, like many other insects that rely on leaf-like camouflage, display an ungodly degree of polymorphism, and no two specimens are alike.

Distribution
KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and East Africa, throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar .

Links:
Checklist: The Praying Mantises (Mantodea: Mantidae) of South Africa
http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/ ... ID=1182667
https://jeb.biologists.org/content/219/17/2733

Flower Mantid Harpagomantis tricolor
Superfamily Galinthiadoidea. Family Galinthiadidae.


The praying mantids are a group of over 2500 predatory insects (Order Mantodea: Superorder Dictyoptera) distributed in tropical and subtropical habitats of the world, from the rainforest to the desert ground. The order Mantodea comprises over 20 families. The members of Galinthiadidae are either forest-dwelling or lives on flowering plants where they hide motionless waiting for prey. Four genera and 24 species are assigned to this family which are distributed in Africa and southwest Asia.
(There was a revision of the plant-mimicking mantis families Empusidae and Hymenopodidae and Harpagomantis is now in the new family Galinthiadidae. The Galinthiadidae show a great resemblance to the Hymenopodidae, which is why all the genera included were formerly assigned to the latter family).

Nymph, Kruger National Park


Links:
Biodiversity Explorer; Tree of Life Web Project
http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/ ... ID=1182727

Flag Mantis Polyspilota aeruginosa
Superfamily Mantoidea. Family Mantidae. Subfamily Tenoderinae. Tribe Tenoderini. Subtribe Polyspilotina

Nymph









Kruger National Park, Skukuza

Adult - (photo from Zoologische Staatssammlung München)





Distribution
Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, CAR, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zanzibar, Zimbabwe.



Links:
http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/ ... ID=1184270
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _the_World

Flag Mantis Polyspilota aeruginosa
Superfamily Mantoidea. Family Mantidae. Subfamily Tenoderinae. Tribe Tenoderini. Subtribe Polyspilotina


© Richprins
The males of Polyspilota aeruginosa are often brown with the frontal half of their body and the costal area of the tegmina green.

© Richprins
Adult male, Nelspruit

Description
Up to 80 mm in length. The forewings are are brown mottled. The inside of the fore legs is blue and yellow (revealed in display when threatened) and have a black spot on the femur.

Habitat
Usually found on trees in bushveld and savanna.

Leaf Mantis Dystacta alticeps
Superfamily Chroicopteroidea. Family Chroicopteridae. Subfamily Chroicopterinae. Tribe Chroicopterini

Male, Mopani camp Kruger National Park © Pumbaa



Male, Berg en Dal camp Kruger National Park © Tina

Male, Kruger National Park © nan


© nan
Green female

© nan
Kruger National Park, Punda Maria

Description
Male and female large in size (observed range 44–56 mm). Cryptic and strongly sexually dimorphic. Head oval, eyes not projecting. Colours can vary such as between pink, brown, green and yellow to almost white.
Male and female with distinct pattern on the prosternum.
Dense ciliation along the anterior margin and in the costal region of the forewings; the medial and cubital veins of the forewings are divergent and widely spread.
Male has elongate thorax, constricted behind origin of the fore legs, wings extending beyond abdomen, flattened, broadening posteriorly, light mottled brown, darkening posteriorly, criss-crossed with pale lines. Legs elongate, raptorial limbs fairly slender. Male foretibiae with 9–10 posteroventral spines. Male forefemora with 13 anteroventral spines.
Female with much broader, rounded and flattened abdomen and abbreviated wings (brachypterous).
Vertex that is slightly curved in males and strongly curved in females; the male antennae ciliated and medium to long; the female antennae short; Wings of the male partially opaque, extending well beyond the abdomen; the wings of females not fully developed
Forefemora with 12–13 anteroventral femoral spines; the foretibiae with 10-11 anteroventral tibial spines; and the supra-anal plate transverse.


Distribution
Northern and north-eastern parts of South Africa and KZN. Extends into Mozambique, East and Central Africa.


Links:
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/ANNA_100B_0019-0059.pdf
https://specimens.mantodearesearch.com/specimens/126
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042705/
https://twitter.com/naskrecki/status/839811879669231616
http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/ ... ID=1183224

Giant Grass Mantis Danuria (Danuria) thunbergi
Superfamily Mantoidea. Family Deroplatyidae. Subfamily Popinae. Tribe Popini


© nan
Male, Kruger National Park

Description
Long-bodied stick mantis. Adult females are 9–10 cm in length, the smaller males are 7.5–9 cm.

Distribution
Ethiopea, Kenya, Congo, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe.

Links:
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/ANNA_100B_0019-0059.pdf
http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/ ... ID=1184912

Bark Mantid Oxypiloidea (Oxypiloidea) tridens
Superfamily Hymenopoidea. Family Hymenopodidae. Subfamily Acromantinae. Tribe Otomantini


© ExFmem
© ExFmem
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Taxonomic Note
After revision of the Genus Oxipoidea, Oxypiloidea subcornuta (Westwood, 1889) is now considered a synonym of Oxypiloidea tridens Saussure, 1872.
(Roy R. 2013. — Révision du genre africain Oxypiloidea Schulthess, 1898 (Dictyoptera, Mantodea, Hymenopodidae). Zoosystema 35 (3): 277-359)

Genus Oxypiloidea
Pronotum more or less elongated; mid and hind femora with a lamellar expansion in addition of the subterminal lobe; hypophallus with on the right a well expanded process ended by one or several points.

Identification
Identifiable by upright teeth on the prothorax, a small pair close together in front and a larger, separated pair behind.
Main tubercles of pronotum about its middle; process of vertex short or hardly elongated; process of the right side of hypophallus with at least three teeth; hind process of hypophallus solid, with wide base.


© ExFmem

© ExFmem

© ExFmem
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park


Links:
http://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/en/periodiq ... enopodidae
http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/ ... ID=1182552

Bark Mantid Tarachodes (Tarachodes) sanctus
Superfamily Eremiaphiloidea. Family Eremiaphilidae. Subfamily Tarachodinae. Tribe Tarachodini

Female with ootheca, Garden in Pretoria, Gauteng (16 Dec 2020) © Caju


© BluTuna
Female. Kruger National Park
The habit of holding the forelegs bent aside and the dorsal edges of the femora pressed against the lateral edges of the pronotum can be found in many bark dwelling Mantodea. This behaviour helps to conceal the typical 'praying' outline and to avoid lateral shadows. The close fitting of the dorsal fore femora against the prothorax plays an important role in camouflage. When pressed against the surface, usually a branch, or the bark of a tree, the dorsal edges of the fore femora perfectly merge with the ventral lateral edges of the pronotum when the fore legs are folded.


In general, Tarachodinae may be identified by having slightly flattened habitus, flattened cerci and shortened meso- and metathoracic legs. The head is comparatively large with respect to the often slender body. The males are mostly fully winged, while the females are often brachypterous.

Tarachodes mantids are cryptic brown and dorso-ventrally flattened to closely resemble bark and lichens. They spend much time resting motionless on tree trunks with the head flexed (with mouthparts directed backward), so that in side view the contour line of tree to head is imperceptible.
Adult females have reduced wings and the abdomens of the females and nymphs are corrugated, resembling the texture of bark.
Wings of the males are gray, reticulated, with dark blotches.
Several species exhibit maternal care; females guard the ootheca (egg case) until the nymphs emerge.

Tarachodes sanctus is 30,0 - 47,0 mm in length and the female has a pair of conical humps on the pronotum, lateral margins of the pronotum toothed.


Distribution
South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Northern Province, Northwestern Province and Northern Cape), Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia DR Congo, Rwanda.


Mantis Facts: Ootheca
The ootheca, or egg case, is a complex structure female praying mantises form during oviposition to provide support and protection to eggs from environmental conditions and natural enemies. The ootheca itself is formed from the frothy secretions of the accessory glands of the female genital complex, which gradually harden upon mixing. Unlike other dictyopterans, mantodean oothecae are remarkable for exhibiting extensive architectural and cryptic variation, as well as variation in the mechanical properties of its constituent elements, mostly protein and calcium-based compounds.

Links:
https://specimens.mantodearesearch.com/specimens/1133
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/ANNA_100B_0019-0059.pdf
http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/ ... ID=1185422

Bark Mantid Tarachodes (Tarachodes) sanctus
Superfamily Eremiaphiloidea. Family Eremiaphilidae. Subfamily Tarachodinae. Tribe Tarachodini


The nymph have hatched! The female puts her antennae on the nymphs.
They are so cute. I count about 15 of them. The one I took with the female touching it with her antennae appears to be dead. Size is 1.3cm.

6 Gen. 2021