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- This page contains information and pictures about Praying Mantids in Family
Mantidae
that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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- Females in this Mantidae family are usually have smaller but functional
wings. Males are fully winged.
-
- This Mantidae family contains 80% of the Praying Mantids species found in Australia.
Usually they are large in size. On their front arm, they have two rows of
spines, which is different from a single row of the family Amorphoscelidae.
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- We found quite a few different species in different subfamilies, listed as
follows.
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Orthoderinae
- Mantids in this sub-family are medium in size. Females are usually have
smaller but functional wings. Males are fully winged.
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- Garden Mantid
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- Orthodera ministralis, nymph, female, both body length 40mm
- Garden Praying Mantids, one of the most commonly seen mantids in
Brisbane, is green in colour
with the relative wide and straight flat thorax. The forewings covered all
of its abdomen. Also notice the blue spots on their front legs. More
information please click on here.
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Iridopteryginae
- Mantids in this sub-family are small in size. Wings of female are reduced
to very small. This makes it hard to distinguish between nymph and female.
Males are fully winged.
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- Black Ground Mantid
 
 - Bolbe nigra, female body length 10mm
Male, body length 10mm
- We found this tiny mantid a few times in Karawatha Forest during late summer. It
was running on the forest floor. At first we thought it was a brown ant
holding something. When we came closer and recognized it was a mantid. We
have more pictures and information in this page.
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- Snake Mantid
 
 - Kongobatha diademata, body length 20mm
- We sometimes found this Snake Mantid hunting small moths near the window
outside our house. Snake Mantids are pale green in colour, small in size with
elongated body. Photos were taken on Mar 2001.
- 1. Praying Mantids - family Mantidae - lifeunseen.com, by Nick Monaghan.
- 2. Grasshopper
Country - the Abundant Orthopteroid Insects of Australia, D Rentz,
UNSW Press, 1996 p241.
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- Tree-running Mantid
 - Ciulfina sp., body length 25mm, male, female
- The Tree-running Mantid is pale brown with brown patterns. It has the
flattened body we believed it is the adoption for moving under tree barks.
It has very long legs. The legs move sideway when running like a cockroach.
Please check this page for more
information.
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Mantinae
- Mantids in this subfamily are medium to large in size. They can be very
slender to very robust. Both males and females are fully winged but females
may or may not able to fly. Both green and brown forms may occur in the same
species. Females lay large size Ootheca.
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- False Garden Mantid
   - Pseudomantis albofimbriata, females body length 60mm
Male, body length 40mm
- We sometimes find this mantid hunting in our backyard. They are either
green or brown in colour. There is a blue or brown spot on inner side of each of
its fount arm. They are slow moving, with large abdomen. Females are winged by
wings are relatively
small and do not seems able to fly. For more information and pictures
please click here.
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- Purplewinged
Mantid, Australian Mantid
 
 - Tenodera australasiae, body
length 100mm nymph
- The adults Purplewinged Mantids are large in size with long and narrow body.
Their wings are purple to dark brown in
colour, with grass green on both edges. Their head and body are light brown
with green colour eyes. There is more information and pictures in the Purplewinged
Mantid page.
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- Large Brown Praying Mantid,
Stick Mantid
  - Archimantis latistyla, body length 120mm
nymph
- This Large Brown Mantid is very common in Brisbane. This mantids is pale brown in colour and looks like a dry leave among the grass.
There are two black dots on each side of its forewings. Their nymphs are
either brown or green in colours.
For more information please click here.
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- Burying Mantid
 
 - Sphodropoda tristis, nymph, body length 60mm
- Pictures taken in Karawatha Forest during mid summer. When we came
closer, the mantids moved to the other side of the stem. The mantids are grey brown
in colour with dark brown patterns. They are called Burying Mantids because females dig small
hole in ground in which they lay eggs and then refill
it. More information and pictures can be found in this page.
- Here we would like to thank Graham
Milledge of Australian Museum for he had kindly sent us email on correcting some
mistakes in this page.
- Reference:
- 1. Insects
of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University
Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 351-355.
- 2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus &
Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p93.
- 3. Grasshopper
Country - the Abundant Orthopteroid Insects of Australia, D Rentz,
UNSW Press, 1996 p233.
- 4. Northern
Territory Insects, A Comprehensive Guide CD - Graham Brown, 2009.
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[ Up ] [ Garden Mantid ] [ Black Ground Mantid ] [ Tree-running Mantid ] [ False Garden Mantid ] [ Purplewinged Mantid ] [ Large Brown Mantid ] [ Burying Mantid ]
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