Mantids and more mantids

[vaneramos]

The insect I identified here a few weeks ago as a walking-stick was not, but instead a grass mantis, Thesprotia graminis. What's That Bug refers to it as a "southern species", and all online references associate it with Florida, but it was perched on my dock in Central Ontario on April 29, about three weeks after ice would have disappeared from the lake.

Here is another exquisite little mantid I spied while walking along the Speed River with Brenna, Mina and Barney on Friday afternoon. It was perched on this Eupatorium flower and I mistook it for some kind of sucking bug, but back home the macro images revealed its distinctive predatory foreleg. It's about 1 cm long.

We found some acrobatic little bugs scrambling around the branches of a spruce tree. They moved quickly and my photos didn't turn out. I figured they were feeding on buds or sap. Now I realize they were nymphs of the common European mantis or praying mantis, Mantis religiosa, so they must have been hunting other bugs.

There are about 20 mantis species found in North America, but I can't find a list of Canadian ones online. Does anyone know a source? I've written to What's That Bug in hope of identifying this one.

Comments

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

I would never have noticed it if I hadn't seen it in your post! it looks so much like a leafhopper until you look closely.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Hey, that is cool! It looks like yours is a younger nymph of the same species. I love it when the camera discovers things that escape the eye. Where did you see this?

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

I cut some tansy to take into the studio to photograph and (s)he was clinging to it.