Carolina Mantis: Camouflage Works Well for Stagmomantis carolina

Summary: Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) is a New World beneficial insect that resorts to clever camouflages.

closeup of Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) head: CosbyArt, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stagmomantis carolina is a New World insect native to warm, temperate and tropical North America, from the United States through Mexico and Central America (especially Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama), as well as to northeastern South America.

United States’ homelands range from New Jersey southward to Florida and westward to Utah and Arizona.

In northeastern South America, Stagmomantis carolina claims homelands in Venezuela, as well as in Trinidad, off Venezuela’s northeastern coast.

Stagmomantis carolina is known commonly in English as Carolina mantid or as Carolina mantis.

Carolina mantis is found in grassland and woodland habitats as well as gardens and meadows. Especially areas with plentiful flowers provide ideal settings for abundant food sources, with high densities and diversities of such arthropods as insects and spiders.

Carolina mantis presents an elongated silhouette topped by a noticeable, triangular head with large, front-facing eyes. Head plus thorax length closely equals the length of the abdomen, or body's last segment. Males are slenderer and smaller than females.

The head, which is connected to a long prothorax, the first section of the thorax, by a flexible membrane, is capable of 180-degree rotation. Long, slim antennae equal half the length of Carolina mantis' middle legs.

Long, serrated, spiny forelegs are held in a position akin to an unfolded jackknife or to praying. The praying, raptorial position, which facilitates capturing and securing prey, typifies the insect order, Mantodea, to which Carolina mantis belongs.

Abdominal wings distinguish females from males. Females' non-functional wings only extend over about 75 percent of the abdomen. Males' functional wings, which allow for flight, usually extend to the tip of the abdomen.

Carolina mantis camouflages as dusty or mottled shades of brown, gray or green. Stealthy strategies of camouflage combined with slow, deliberate movements and patient motionlessness allow Carolina mantis to ambush completely clueless prey.

Carolina Mantis generally is viewed as a beneficial insect because its skillful predation rids farms and gardens of annoying, destructive pests.

Unfortunately, as an opportunistic predator, Carolina mantis does not distinguish between unwelcome and welcome arthropods. Unsuspecting bumblebees (Bombus spp.) may be devoured just as easily as pesky Mexican bean beetles (Epilachna varivestis).

four Stagmomantis carolina oothecae (egg masses enclosed within protective cover of hardened protein foam): CosbyArt, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The female Carolina mantis lays eggs via an ovipositor, an organ that also beats liquid secreted by abdominal glands into a froth that, hardening with air exposure, forms a protective cover, known as ootheca, for the egg mass and attaches oothecae, or masses, to vegetation.

Garden supply centers sell oothecae for onsite hatching as biological controls of agricultural, horticultural, and gardening pests.

Act 591 of 1988, passed during the 107th session of the South Carolina General Assembly, designated Stagmomantis carolina as the state insect for its stately attributes, specified as:
". . . it is a native, beneficial insect that is easily recognizable throughout the State; it symbolizes the importance of the natural science of entomology and its special role in all forms of agriculture in helping to control harmful insects; and it provides a perfect specimen of living science for the school children of this State." (The South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 1, Chapter , Article 9, section 1-1-645)

During the early evening, near sunset, on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7, as I was relaxing on the couch near my house's east living room window, a movement on the outer side of the storm window caught my attention. A female Carolina mantis, seemingly favoring her left foreleg, was clambering up the glass.

When she momentarily froze upon detecting my interested attention, I turned away, almost in full profile.

After a few moments she resumed her slow but steady ascent while I watched with a peripheral gaze until she was obscured by the upper sash.

What was her destination? Possibly she was seeking the shelter of the top of the window frame, which was seeming more secure than the surrounding trees and vegetation.

Hopefully she had a good night's sleep because she was nowhere in sight in the morning.

Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina): Whitaker Gene, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

closeup of Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) head: CosbyArt, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stagmomantis-carolina-headfront-susanna.jpg

four Stagmomantis carolina oothecae: CosbyArt, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stagmomantis-carolina-ooths-2014-11.jpg

Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina): Whitaker Gene, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green_praying_mantis_insect_stagmomantis_carolina.jpg