This is the first praying mantis I have ever seen in my garden. I looked it up and I guess Iowa only has two kinds of Mantis. One is the larger Chinese Mantis and the other is the Carolina Mantis. My was very long so I am thinking it is the Chinese Mantis. I let it go after taking its picture. It actually kind of scared me when I first saw it. I was cutting back my Daylily in my veggie garden. Now I am afraid there are more lurking around.








Has anyone seen this kind before?

That is a male Chinese. Chinese mantises are brown with that small line of green on the side. Carolina mantises are either brown or green.

It's an invasive mantis, but they're everywhere, so no need to kill one off if you see one (we have them down in Georgia too).

It's male because of the long wings. Females can't fly (unlike the boys), have shorter "wings" (they only go about halfway down their butts--- also not sure if they're considered wings for females), and they have larger butts.

Thank you so much for that information. I am really hoping I don't find any more cause I know they can eat good bugs as well as bad bugs.

Jeanne, welcome to praying mantis ownership! They are fascinating creatures and, as you've discovered, quite photogenic. Here is our PM thread of you encounter more and want to post some pics.

https://garden.org/thread/go/1...

If you have females, I'd think they'd have laid eggs by now in your climate, so keep an eye out for the egg cases, called ootheca. The Chinese cases are rounder than the natives. If your male has mated, he got away lucky!

Some info & photos:
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/c...