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Sticker of Bordered mantis
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Bordered mantis

Stagmomantis limbata

The bordered mantis is a praying mantis from North America. It is usually green or light brown, and the female's wing covers have a thin white edge, like a border. It holds its spiky front legs folded up as if it were praying, ready to grab a meal.

Lives in
Southwestern United States and Mexico, from Texas to Southern California
Length
5.1 to 7.6 cm (2 to 3 in)
Top speed
about 1.1 km/h (0.68 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It is a helpful insect that eats garden pests.
What does it eat?
Like all mantises, it is a hunter. It waits very still and then snatches insects with its spiky front legs.
For real!Photo of Bordered mantis
Picture by Skoch3. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Bordered mantis about 7.6 cm long (3 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 2.5 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 3.3 seconds

How big is Bordered mantis compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The females are bigger and chunkier than the males, and they cannot fly.

2

The males are slim with long wings, and they often fly to bright lights at night.

3

It has a blue upper lip, which helps scientists tell it apart from its cousins.

4

It is the most common native mantis in the western United States.

5

The female's back wings are striped or checkered with yellow.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bordered mantis

?Is the bordered mantis dangerous?

No. It is harmless to people and helps by eating insects.

?How big is a bordered mantis?

Females grow to about 7.5 centimetres long and males to about 5 centimetres.

?Can the bordered mantis fly?

Only the males can fly. The females have wings that are too small.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Stagmomantis limbata
Group
Mantises
Family
Mantidae
Classification
Insecta > Mantodea > Mantidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Bosque mantis, Arizona mantis, New Mexico praying mantis

Where the facts come from

  1. Stagmomantis limbata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Skoch3. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Mantises

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