Name that Hierodula sp.!

TheBeesKnees · Apr 11, 2014

A little while back, I submitted my first post to this forum asking if anyone could ID a nymph I had found.

We came to the conclusion that was was a Hierodula of some sort (being in southeast asia, it's not a Sphodromantis), but couldn't figure out which!

Well, yesterday, she went through her final molt, and is now a very beautiful adult!! Now that she's fully grown, I wonder if getting a proper ID on her would be easier! Here are some photos I took of her just now!:

Note the eye shaped markings on her wings!

All info regarding where I found her (as well as photos of other nymphs from the same or previous hatches) can be found in the link to my previous post

I would love to finally know which species she is, exactly! But I understand that the "generic green mantis" is a hard one to pin.

Shadow · Apr 11, 2014

Maybe hierodula patellifera

I_love_mantids · Apr 12, 2014

i'd guess patellifera too

hibiscusmile · Apr 12, 2014

Gee I know that species, but can't spit it out!

TheBeesKnees · Apr 13, 2014

After some searching of my own (and looking up the H. patellifera), I think I have actually figured out which species she is!!
I'm quite certain now that she is a hierodula parviceps! It's a smaller hierodula species, like the patellifera, but the markings and leg banding, ect. matches up perfectly.

The patellifera is a close one, but that species seems to lack the pink.brown banding on the limbs, and the markings on the wings are less pronounced, and often without the black ring around it.

Check it out, and compare these photos (found via google images) to the ones of Penh in the op!

And for the sake of comparison, here's a patellifera:

It is close, and an excellent guess, but lacks the banding on the legs, and the eye dot is of a slightly different design!

WHEW!
I'm just so happy to finally have an ID on Penh!!
Unless anyone has a good argument against my conclusion, I'll rest at calling her a hierodula parviceps!

Thanks for the help, guys!

Dracus · Apr 13, 2014

Definitely not H. parviceps (and those on the internet photos are also not this species). According to the original description, parviceps has completely black fore coxae and a black line on the inside of the forefemur.

I'd also say it's something from the patellifera group (patellifera, xishaensis, yunnanensis) H. patellifera is a very plastic species, so markings around stigma is not a very reliable character.

TheBeesKnees · Apr 13, 2014

Oh!
Do you have a source link? All the descriptions I've seen, and the photos I get under the file names of Hierodula Parviceps produce the same results. But I'm limited to just doing extensive Google searches... I have not run into any description nor photos which echo what you're saying :U
I'd like to get savvy with what ever resource you seem to have at your disposal!

Edit: even looking up breeders who are selling them, it seems to be a prevalent misconception (if that is indeed the case). All the mantids folks are selling as "Hierodula Parviceps" look identical (along with brown variants) to the ones I posted... No signs of black fore coxae nor of a black line on the inside of the forefemur on either green nor brown colored specimens depicted. So I'm really confused. Is it just an out of control misconception/misinformation among breeders, or..?

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Dracus · Apr 13, 2014

I used the original description of H. parviceps by Carl Stål (attached, see p. 38) as well as the picture of the holotype published by Sjöstedt (1930). As you can see, the shape of pronotum is different too - H. parviceps has no constriction in the middle, contrary to H. patellifera and allied species.

There is no key for Hierodula and many identifications in internet are wrong, so for more or less correct ID it's better to read the original descriptions (except for really prominent species, like H. majuscula). You can find bibliographic links for all of them in Mantodea Species File database. After that you can check the papers in Mantodea Project library, for example.

Stal_1877.pdf

TheBeesKnees · Apr 13, 2014

This is exactly what I was hoping to see, thank you!

I wished latin was a thing I could read, but a shoddy internet translation of the text more or less does the trick well enough, I suppose! And you appear to be quite right!

It's actually kind of fascinating to me how a species description can be tossed to the wayside by sellers and buyers alike, and then perpetuated until the misinformation becomes what seems to be the "common knowledge". I wonder how many other specie names are mismatched to mantids featuring different characteristics.

Thank you for the links, as well! Great resource!

Name that Hierodula sp.!

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