Photina mantis (young male)

Amazing! A pink variation of Photina, young male. He probably lost this color when molting to adult. Never seen one that kept colors, they always turn green again.

Well about the color and exposure: there are some mantids which adopt the colors of their surroundings, look at Hymenopus coronats for example, in subadult stadium (L7 like your spotting) it can be found in colors like pink (usually it is white). And concerning the fact that it was easy to spot can be that it was searching for a new spot were it can hide or in some rare cases the mantids even chase after prey when very very hungry.... Too bad I can't figure out the species )=

Marc, it was around 5cm (2 in) long, with folded arms and extended tail. I found it hanging upside down from a stem, relatively exposed, which is not common. The mantids I find are usually hidden among the leaves. Its color isn't common too, most mantids I see are green or dead leaf mimics. It reminds me this other spotting I made: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/896...

It is a male praying mantis and its in "larvae" stadium L7 (L8 is adult), can you give some infos on size etc?

Like the pink color!