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Stagmomantis limbata
Green mantis with a very large abdomen. "Moderately large Mantid. Facial plate (below and between antennae) about twice as wide as long (as for genus), eyes not as protruding as in Carolina Mantid. Females most often fairly plain green (often yellowish abdomen), but sometimes gray, or light brown, with dark spot in middle of tegmina. Tegmina do not completely cover wide abdomen. Hind wings checkered or striped yellow. Males slender, long-winged, variable in color but most often green and brown with sides of folded tegmina green and top brownish (may be solid gray, brown, green, or any combination of these). Abdomen without prominent dark spots on top. Wings transparent, usually with cloudy brownish spots on outer half." - BugGuide
Goldenbush in chaparral area along Lake Hodges trail. The range is "Texas to southern California, north into Colorado and Utah, south into Mexico." - BugGuide
Mantis qualify for Wildlife with Super Senses because: "the articulation of the head is also remarkably flexible, permitting nearly 300 degrees of movement in some species, allowing for a great range of vision (their compound eyes may contain up to 10,000 ommatidia and have a large binocular field of vision). The dark spot on each eye is a pseudopupil. As their hunting relies heavily on vision, they are primarily diurnal, but many species will fly at night, especially males in search of less-mobile females whom they can detect through pheromones. Flying at night allows these males to avoid many diurnal bird predators, and many mantises also have an auditory thoracic organ that assists them as they attempt to avoid capture by bats by detecting the presence of the bat's echolocation sounds and responding evasively." - Wikipedia
Spotted on Nov 2, 2011
Submitted on Nov 2, 2011
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