Something not quite right?

I haven't been out in the garden too much lately, but as I walked by this bamboo patch I realized something wasn't quite right.


Can you spot what caught my eye?


***


That one leaf just looks a bit weird...


...because it's not a leaf at all!


It's a Chinese mantis! Remember the egg cases I found earlier this year? This is the species that creates them. (First sighting in my garden)

I should get out into the garden more.


So, are these non-native predators good insects or bad? They will eat the native Carolina mantis, but I just don't know. Anybody?

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Hoover Boo  – (October 19, 2018 at 1:05 PM)  

Scary beastie! It's giving you a nasty look in that last photo.

Here I have only seen Carolina mantis.

I was looking around for invasive qualities of Chinese mantis; not much except a few "not an issue" reports; I wonder if predators are largely self-limiting as to population as they depend on a food supply. Also mantis are notorious cannibals...

Hoover Boo  – (October 19, 2018 at 1:07 PM)  

Oh, correction, we have Stagmomantis californica, California mantis!

chavliness  – (October 25, 2018 at 8:08 PM)  

Great camouflage, I never would have noticed.

Tarzanus  – (December 5, 2018 at 2:29 PM)  

I had them in my garden one season and they eat A LOT! I could hardly found any other insect predators in the bamboo canopy while they were around. They caught even the largest spiders and dominated the dense foliage. I saw them feast on stinkbugs, wasps, bees, all kind of flies and moths,... They are extremely effective predators.

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