have you ever seen _____? unknown mantis appreciation thread

[thehelepolis]

There are a ton of strange and cool mantises out there that are quite overlooked because they are not in the hobby. This thread is to give these unnoticed mantids the spotlight! Rules of the game are simple, post any mantis you think is neat but unknown. (Inaturalist is a good way to find them)

I’ll go first: have you ever seen panurgica? Believe it or not this dead leaf mimic is closest related to flower mantises like creobroter and spiny flower mantises, coming from the same tribe! 

 

[thehelepolis]

Have you ever seen blepharodes? This little guy closest related to the well known thistle mantis. Unlike the rest of the empusids, blepharodes seems to have went down a whole different evolutionary path, adapting to living on the harsh desert ground as opposed to dwelling in the leaves and trees like other empusids such as idolomantis or thistle mantis. Comparing blepharodes and blepharopsis, blepharodes stands more upright and is more stout like an eremiaphila while also retaining some blepharodes traits, like the wing pattern and head crest.

 

[thehelepolis]

Have you ever seen the crescent moon mantids? Stagmatoptera is a South American genus of large green mantises. They are mostly your average mantis if not for the fact that many of them sport a twin pair of crescent moons on each wing!

 

[MantisGirl13]

That's a beautiful mantis!

- MantisGirl13 

 

[Mantis Lady]

That last mantis is beautiful. I want 1

 

[thehelepolis]

Have you ever see-oh who am I kidding, we’ve all seen the famous orchid mantis! You may be wondering, helepolis, why are you posting a famous species on an unknown mantis thread? Well, thing is, the orchid mantis we have in captivity is only a small faction of the beauty this species really has to offer. This species color mimicry is not only beautiful but more versatile than we could ever know, able to mimic any color between red and yellow. Without further waiting, I introduce our special guest of today, the amazing, the beautiful, ORCHID MANTIS!!!!

turns out, an orange orchid isn’t as unlikely as one may think!



This soft yellow looks even more like a flower than even a pink orchid!   

this flower right here is a deep yellow with red highlights, but as we can see in the image below the amazing orchid is even able to mimic this flower!



You may have noticed that the lobes of the legs have a clear spot, well that’s actually the empty space of the outer shell as the lobes of this subadult male shrink to their adult size! As you can see by those wing buds he’s nearly ready for his adult molt, and separation of the new body and the outer shell is one of the steps of molting, taking place before the real molt.

 

[BlobfishBoy]

For clarification, yellow orchid mantises (Parymenopus davisoni) is actually a different species from the usual orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus).

 

[thehelepolis]

For clarification, yellow orchid mantises (Parymenopus davisoni) is actually a different species from the usual orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus).

actually believe it or not none of these are helvia cardinalis. every one of them is a hymenopus, the leg petals are not the right shape for helvia and only a hymenopus has the brown lines on its abdomen. this is actually the very reason I made this post, to clear up a myth and show that hymenopus comes in far more colors than the pink and white everyone thinks they are.

 

[thehelepolis]

also forgot to add the detail about how hymenopus have those little eye knobs while helvia only has round smooth eyes

 

[BlobfishBoy]

ah ok, thank you for the information

 

[mantisfan101]

Parymenopus was also changed to helvia so parmenopus davisoni is now helvia cardinalis

 

[thehelepolis]

Get ready to meet the award winner for ugliest mantis! You may think that there’s no such thing as an ugly mantis but Photiomantis planicephala joins us here today to prove us wrong. I don’t know the behaviors of this mantis, but it’s safe to say that this is one mantis you wouldn’t want to be bitten by based on the fact that that huge head is likely hiding some equally huge jaw muscles. This mantis is native to the amazon of South America.

 

[MantisGirl13]

It's not ugly, its adorable!!

- MantisGirl13 

 

[Mantis Man13]

Yah its eyes are so big lol

 

[thehelepolis]

It's not ugly, its adorable!!

- MantisGirl13 

its kinda both for me, like a pug lol

 

[Mantis Man13]

But why do u think its ugly

 

[thehelepolis]

But why do u think its ugly

for me its the strange vertical eye shape combined with how its head is real big and rounded with that very small mouth. its especially noticeable in the threat display picture where it looks as if it is snarling at the one holding it. don't get me wrong, I still think its a real cool mantis and I would love to have one, but like I said, its ugly in an endearing way like a pug. however, based on all your replies, I may be the only one who thinks about the little photiomantis in this way. perhaps its not ugly at all, beauty really is in the eye of the bee holder

 

[Mantis Man13]

Lol bee holder. Was that supposed to be a joke like an insect the bee

 

[thehelepolis]

Lol bee holder. Was that supposed to be a joke like an insect the bee

yep