running mantiss

[HepCatMoe]

i just saw my first arizona mantiss!!

ok so im walking back from the mail box,

and i look down and i see this little bug hallin balls across the side walk. i bend down to get a closer look, and its a mantiss!! yay!! its was a tan/beige nymph about a centimeter long. when i tried to catch it, it jumped *over* my hand and into the grass.

i couldnt find it after that.

so i always pictured mantids as kinda slow. but not this guy, i mean he was seriously hallin balls across the sidewalk. even if i had managed to catch the little guy, i think he would easily escape from any jar i had him in as soon as i opened it up.

is this speed unique to this species? or is it just a nymph thing? or am i jus wrong about mantids being slow?

 

[robo mantis]

You saw a ground mantis, try finding some we need some because yen have a female but no male. And no one else has them in the states.

 

[HepCatMoe]

now that ive seen one, i will definately try to catch one. theres an empty lot right by my house and i bet could find some there.

edit: after having found out it was a ground mantiss i did some googling and found this page.

check out this quote:

Remarks :Very difficult to capture.

lol, so ill do my best to catch one...

 

[robo mantis]

try it shouldn't be to hard you just got to suprise them

 

[yen_saw]

yen have a female but no male

Robo, i don't have this species (L. minour) anymore. Besides, i believed what HepCatMoe saw might be a stagmomantis sp instead. I have never seen a beige ground mantis and this species rarely "jump" but ran as fast as roaches for a short distance.

 

[robo mantis]

Oh i thought since it was running on the ground