New Zealand Mantis

I have mostly been in and around Auckland, and all the mantises I have seen here have been springbok mantises - Miomantis caffra. This is a mantis from South Africa that was only first recorded in New Zealand in the 1970's but is has made itself very much at home. Just occasionally both in gardens and out in the bush I have spotted an ootheca (mantis egg cluster) which doesn't quite look like the others.

Springbok mantis ootheca

New zealand mantis ootheca

The ootheca on the left is from a springbok mantis, the one on the right is from the new zealand mantis - Orthodera novaezealandiae. A careful poke about in the bushes around where the anomalous oothecas were deposited finally yielded my first sighting of the new zealand mantis.

All of these mantises are young, about 1.5cm in length. Full grown adults have wings and get up to 4cm in length.

The introduced springbok mantis and the natve new zealand mantis are the only two mantises living in New Zealand.

Mantis Hatchlings

I had been watching the ootheca of a springbok mantis - Miomantis caffra - on the wall next to my front door since I moved in here five months ago, then suddenly, last week it was covered in a swarm of tiny little mantis nymphs, each about 7mm long.

There were twenty on the first evening. With smaller numbers emerging over the next three days - all in the late afternoon.

I caught the hatching process on video a couple of times, but it is a long, slow process - emerging as a worm-shaped thing, and then wriggling to unfurl their limbs.

They then hang around on the ootheca until they have hardened and turned brown, after which they mostly seem to wait nearby until nightfall before dispersing.

These little guys still have a way to go to become a fully-fledged adult:

Conehead Mantis

Wildlife Wednesday #51

Here is Empusa pennata - the conehead mantis - a large, but very thin praying mantis from southwest europe.

Empusa pennata - Conehead mantis

Empusa pennata - Conehead mantis

 Males can distinguished by their long, feathery antennae which they use to home in on pheremones released by the females during the breeding season.

Empusa pennata - Conehead mantis