New Zealand Mantis and Springbok Mantis

This article provides a description of how to tell the New Zealand Praying Mantis (Orthodera novaezealandiae) and the South African Springbok Mantis (Miomantis caffra) apart.

It also explains how it is necessary to tell the difference, because the Springbok Mantis which was accidentally introduced to New Zealand in the late 1970's is threatening to push out our native New Zealand Mantises. The male New Zealand Mantises cannot tell the difference between their own species, and the Springbok Mantises. It wouldn't be too bad if the two species could produce a hybrid, but since the way the eggs are produced are different, that is out of the question.

The male New Zealand Mantises are worryingly more attracted to the female Springbok Mantises than they are towards the female New Zealand Mantises. Since the female Springbok Mantises are much more cannibalistic than the female New Zealand Mantises, several male New Zealand Mantises lose their lives after trying to mate with the female Springbok Mantises. The Springbok Mantises have a larger offspring and a longer breeding season, which further complicates the issues the New Zealand Mantises are facing.

Differences between the two Mantis species found in New Zealand
The first difference is that the New Zealand Mantis is always green. It is endemic to New Zealand, so most readers probably won't have seen a New Zealand Mantis before in person. It has a wide, flat thorax. An obvious difference is the New Zealand Mantis has a dark blue dot on the inside of each of its forelegs, or forearms if you want to refer to it that way. It also sometimes has a reddish tinge on certain parts of its body.

The Springbok Mantis can be a range of colours. They are usually green, but they also come in brown, or even pink. They have a narrow waist, unlike the New Zealand Mantis, giving them a classic hammerhead appearance. Both genders of the New Zealand Mantis are able to fly, whereas the female Springbok Mantises cannot fly. Springbok Mantises often have tiny black spots on their legs. Please don't let these black spots fool you, because they aren't a misprint of the blue dots the New Zealand Mantises carry.

I did that once, because I didn't know whether the black spots were a misprint of the blue dots, or whether the Springbok Mantises had them. I spared a male Springbok Mantis, and when I looked the differences up on the computer, by the time I realised I'd spared a Springbok Mantis, and went back outside to find it, it had already disappeared. The Springbok Mantis often has yellow under their wings. The males are quite scrawny and have long semi-transparent wings.

Experiences with Springbok Mantises
I remember when I grabbed a female Springbok Mantis in a threatening way, and just as I was about to kill it, it pronged me with its forelegs. Like it was trying to puncture my skin. I got such a surprise I dropped it. Not sure if I managed to kill it, because I didn't see where it landed. Hopefully I did.

One day after that, I caught a female Springbok Mantis, and two male Springbok Mantises. My intention was to catch two females and watch them try to kill each other. But I couldn't find a second female, so I had to catch two males in addition to the one female instead. One of the males was fatally injured while I was trying to catch it. The other male survived.

They were in the plastic container. The female Mantis initially tried to get out but got used to being in the plastic container after a while. The surviving male Mantis was watching the female Mantis in fear, and the other male Mantis lay there dying. The surviving male Mantis' fears had been realised. In a couple of hours, the female Mantis got hungry and ate it alive, except for a tiny bit of wing. While the difference in the sizes between the male and the female weren't too different, the male was very scrawny and was no match for the female. It didn't stand a chance while trying to get away. And neither did the female after she'd finished eating the male.