An eye on each wing
When threatened it flicks up its wings to show two big, spiral eyespots, like the face of a much larger animal.
The Congo rainforest · Grasshoppers, crickets, mantises and stick insects
Spiny flower mantis
Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii
A small, green and white mantis with spiny lobes on its body and a spiral eye pattern on each wing.
- Size
- About 4cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Shrubs and flowers in eastern and southern Africa
Creeps after you, swaying. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Flower mantis
Good to know
Six things about the flower mantis
It sits on flowers
It waits on a flower head, looking like part of the bloom, and catches the insects that come to feed.
Small but bold
It will catch bees and butterflies larger than itself.
Spines and frills
The lobes and spikes on its body break up its outline so that it does not look like an insect at all.
The young look like ants
Newly hatched ones are black, and curl their tails up to look like ants.
It matches its flower
Its shade varies from white to pink to green, depending on where it grew up.
The real thing
Photos of the flower mantis
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Look very closely at flower heads on a warm day. What gives it away is usually the triangular head turning to look at you.
How to help
Leave flowering shrubs and wild corners. A mantis needs the insects that flowers bring.
Keep going
More from The Congo rainforest
‹ Giant land snailBack to The Congo rainforestA to ZMother-of-pearl ›