I had a business trip to Tampa Bay recently, due to the extra free time I had a chance driving up North to check out any bugs in the park. Mainly after Stagmomantis sp. About 40 minutes later I saw a park which look like a good place for bugs, and lo and behold there is this 'extra' long mantis at first glance I thought it was foreign (Florida is notorious for hosting foreign sp), later there were more and more found, some were found pariring up and it is definitely too 'long' to be a Carolina mantis. I brought back dozens of them and they seem to fit in the description of Stagmomantis floridensis based on http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/choate/mantid_key2_03.pdf
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11. Larger (58mm or more); form more elongate, abdomen of female nearly parallel-sided, tegmina
narrower, reaching only middle of abdomen; stigmatic patch pale, inconspicuous, or obsolete ..........
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.................................... Stagmomantis floridensis Davis
- Smaller (57mm or less); form less elongate, abdomen of female strongly widened at middle, tegmina
broad, reaching apical third of abdomen; stigmatic patch black, conspicuous (cover photo) ...........
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............................. Stagmomantis carolina (Johannson)
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They average in 7-8 cm. Elongated with narrow tegima compare to S. carolina.
This is how they compare to the S. carolina (from MO) adult females. I am not picking the extreme here this 'S. floridensis' is the average 7.5 cm. I would be surprise if they are the same species.
Some females starting to produce ootheca today, they appear to be narrower than the S. carolina and longer as well just like their elongated body.
This is the ooth of S. carolina recently deposited as comparison.
The longest I got is close to 9 cm long!!! :blink:
So the question is, did I nail it? is this the 'elusive' Stagmomantis floridensis? How on earth this species is not in hobby, maybe they don't do well in captivity? i also have few brown specimens they are gorgeous! They are very active despite the long body shape and will jump from the edge of the container. This is definitely the longest Stagmomantis sp. I have ever seen, if this is not S. floridensis. I will bring a specimen to Texas A&M for identification. I have about 9 males but they drop like flies as of today and only 2 survive, females are doing much better as usual.
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11. Larger (58mm or more); form more elongate, abdomen of female nearly parallel-sided, tegmina
narrower, reaching only middle of abdomen; stigmatic patch pale, inconspicuous, or obsolete ..........
................................................................................
.................................... Stagmomantis floridensis Davis
- Smaller (57mm or less); form less elongate, abdomen of female strongly widened at middle, tegmina
broad, reaching apical third of abdomen; stigmatic patch black, conspicuous (cover photo) ...........
................................................................................
............................. Stagmomantis carolina (Johannson)
****************************************************************************
They average in 7-8 cm. Elongated with narrow tegima compare to S. carolina.
This is how they compare to the S. carolina (from MO) adult females. I am not picking the extreme here this 'S. floridensis' is the average 7.5 cm. I would be surprise if they are the same species.
Some females starting to produce ootheca today, they appear to be narrower than the S. carolina and longer as well just like their elongated body.
This is the ooth of S. carolina recently deposited as comparison.
The longest I got is close to 9 cm long!!! :blink:
So the question is, did I nail it? is this the 'elusive' Stagmomantis floridensis? How on earth this species is not in hobby, maybe they don't do well in captivity? i also have few brown specimens they are gorgeous! They are very active despite the long body shape and will jump from the edge of the container. This is definitely the longest Stagmomantis sp. I have ever seen, if this is not S. floridensis. I will bring a specimen to Texas A&M for identification. I have about 9 males but they drop like flies as of today and only 2 survive, females are doing much better as usual.
