European Mantis

Please compare to above link and update!

Hi Marc, great find! This wonderful insect looks to be a Chinese Mantid. There are some differences between these and the European Mantis

The European Mantis comes in green (sometimes with a brown edge) or brown (varying shades of brown). Chinese Mantids come in green or brown with green edging (like yours).
Chinese Mantids have stripes on their face and very often have small dark markings on the inside of their claws.
European Mantises usually have a yellow marking on the inside of the claws.

European Mantises have a distinct spot on the inside of their front legs "armpit" area that is usually white with a black rim or solid black.
They also usually have purple femora (hind four legs, first section from the body).

Here are some images to compare to yours:
European Mantis:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/711906/bgi...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/554741/bgi...

Chinese Mantid:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/587853/bgi...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/577269/bgi...

Hope this helps!

This would be a great addition to the Marvelous Mantids of the North East mission: http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/1573...