Mantis

Sorry , I was thinking that you thought I was referring to T. sinensis. But thanks for the link, I had no idea there were that many species in that genus.

It may be that most or all females of Stagmomantis have short wings. A lot of the Stagmomantis species live around where this mantis from photo is from. But many of those species may be synonyms. They say "as synonym of Stagmomantis carolina (Johansson, 1763)"
http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/b...

I would guess S. carolina about this mantis if I had to in a game or something like that, but I do not know the other species of Stagmomantis.

What made you think I misunderstood you Sigg? Or why did you think I thought you were not agreeing with me that it is a S. carolina? All I did was correct a little thing you wrote barely worth mentioning lol, about the wings. And I agreed with the rest of your comment that T. sinensis do not have those things.

Anyway I have kept Tenodera sinensis and Stagmomantis carolina here in North Carolina and I know for certain this is not a T. sinensis. The mantis in the photo has short wings that do not look as if they were damaged in a molt. Also the colors on this mantis do not match a Chinese Mantis. The pronotum is purplish and the rest of the body is a a strange green for a T. sinensis. Her abdomen is more round than a T. sinensis. In the last photo her head shape is different from a female T. sinensis.

To clarify Mr. Goldfish, I'm agreeing with you in my last comment. Maybe I should have used thee scientific name instead of the common one. But yes, the wings not reaching the tip of the abdomen is one of the reasons I think it is S. carolina.

Yes Sigg. Except adult female T. sinensis can have their wings not touch the tip of their abdomen after they eat, but still much closer to touching the tip of the abdomen than the mantis in the photo.

I'll second the suggestion that it's a Carolina Mantis for a couple reasons. First, the wings don't extend till the end of the abdomen. In a Chinese Mantis they would. And you can just barely see that the wing on the side facing away from the camera has a dark spot on it which is also typical of an adult Carolina Mantis.

Looks like Stagmomantis carolina.