Stagmomantis carolina (Linné, 1763), Linne, 1763

Maxwell, Michael R., 2014, A synoptic review of the genus Stagmomantis (Mantodea: Mantidae), Zootaxa 3765 (6), pp. 501-525 : 514

Stagmomantis carolina (Linné, 1763)

Taxonomic history. First described as Gryllus (Mantis) carolinus by Linné (1763); assigned to Stagmomantis by Saussure (1869). Synonyms: at least 14, including Mantis irrotata (given in Linné 1763), Mantis conspurcata (given in Serville 1839), Stagmomantis dimidiata (given in Saussure 1872), Leptococe maculata (given in Chopard 1912).

Distribution. Over much of USA, through Mexico and Central America into South America (Ehrmann 2002; Agudelo et al. 2007).

Species description. Saussure (1869), brief; Saussure and Zehntner (1894), brief; Blatchley (1920), brief; Giglio-Tos (1927); Rehn (1935b), brief; Helfer (1987), brief.

Features. Male features: forewings are hyaline, can be gray or tessellated with brown spots; marginal strip on forewing is hyaline; hindwings are tessellated with brown spots, sometimes tinged with pink; body coloration is typically gray-brown, but can vary from light to dark brown (Saussure and Zehntner 1894; Giglio-Tos 1927; Blatchley 1920). Female features: forewings are often mottled, with a narrow marginal field; hindwings are red or yellow, nearly opaque at base, with purple and brown in posterior remainder; body coloration includes green, brown, and gray; stigma is broad and oval, black in coloration with pale yellow border; anterior femora can have dark markings (Saussure and Zehntner 1894; Rehn 1911; Rau and Rau 1913; Blatchley 1920; Giglio-Tos 1927; Rehn 1935b). S. carolina has been the subject of much anatomical and morphological work, particularly before 1950 (Rau and Rau 1913; Jordan 1919; Didlake 1926; Levereault 1936, 1938), with some ecological studies appearing in more recent years (Harris and Moran 2000; Chong 2002).