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Sphodromantis Gastrica
This girl and I go way back, I saved her from being closed in our neighbours gate and put here in the climbing grape we have in our garden where she has made a home. Today I managed to catch here at lunch on a shield bug. Presents as a large vivid green mantis and a large abdomen (female). Strong fore limbs indicative of the mantis have demonstrated their versatility and lethality in this predator / prey series.
Common in gardens and wooded areas of the Cape
2 Comments
Thanks Grace Miller, I updated the spotting. I did not use the Eastern Assassin bugs mission as Mantids are not assassin bugs although they make great 'assassins' :) . Assassin bugs belong to the Hemiptera Order (True Bugs) in the family Reduviidae and are so named because almost all are predatory and ambush their prey.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduviidae...
Mantids are in an order all of their own, Mantodea.
This could go under the Interactions Between Different Arthropods mission, and the Eastern Assassin Bugs mission.