Here’s a couple of looks at an enormous praying mantis that I photographed on Thursday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I was walking towards the parking lot at the end of a day of shooting when I passed a couple of fellow photographers who asked me if I wanted to photograph a praying mantis. I think that praying mantises are pretty cool, so of course I was quite happy to have them show me where it was.
I had never seen such a large praying mantis—I estimate that this one was about 5 inches (127 mm) in length. It was a challenge to find a shooting angle that allowed me to get most of this insect’s long angular body in focus. However, the mantis was cooperative and stayed in place until I was able to get some shots that I liked.
I am pretty sure that this is a Chinese Praying Mantis (Tenodera sinensis), a non-native species that is much larger and more aggressive than the native species. I did a little research about mantises in the United States and apparently there are a variety of views about the degree to which the non-native species are “invasive,” i.e. that cause environmental harm.
When I posted a photograph on Facebook, several readers commented that it looked like “my” mantis was about ready to lay her eggs. I had not initially considered that possibility, but it certainly does look like the mantis has a swollen abdomen. Female mantises generally lay their eggs in the fall in a protective sac structure called a “ootheca” and then she dies. The nymphs hatch in the spring when the weather warms up again.
Nature is amazing!
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Wow. (Fabulous photos – marveling at Nature’s life-cycle schemes!)
Great find & images Mike! Never saw or knew of Chinese praying mantises! That is One Large Praying Mantis. We have quite a few regular Praying Mantises in our gardens & shrubs in our yard. The other day we saw one on our illuminated door bell button. Maybe it wanted to come in! Again Great Images!
Love the photos! I remember often coming across the smaller native ones during my years in Pennsylvania, but seldom seen here in Rhode Island. It was about 1973, when a physically frail 80+ yr. old Gram was living with me there, that my young son gifted her with the corpse of a Praying Mantis found on our patio. Gram smiled at him, caressed his face and recited this poem :
“From whence arrived the Praying Mantis?
From outer space, or lost Atlantis?
glimpse the grin, green metal mug
at masks the pseudo-saintly bug,
Orthopterous, also carnivorous,
And faintly whisper, Lord deliver us.”
The poem is by Ogden Nash and that moment in time stays with my son and I to this day. He can recite it from memory, I had to check to verify my memory is correct! Thank-you, Mr. Mike!
Just WOW, Mike! Great job getting that beast in focus and very interesting about the egg laying.
Very impressive creature and beautifully photographed!
Wow! She certainly is big. If you visit in the spring, maybe you’ll see her offspring.
Terrific job photographing this one, Mike!
That’s a big mantis!
It certainly is big, Mike, with a much plumper abdomen than what I remember seeing on local praying mantises here! Different colour too.
Wow. Just WOW.
Thanks, Nina. I am constantly amazed by the things that I see when I am out with my camera.