A stick & a MANTIS? - Stick Mantis

Indian Stick Mantis or the Indian Grass Mantis (Schizocephala bicornis) is a Mantis from the Indian Subcontinent. They are a long mantis at about 13 to 15cm for an adult female, feeding mainly on flies and other small insects and crickets.

The Males have vestigial wings and can fly whereas females cannot.

A short brief on the sighting -

Ninox volunteered to take students from Shikshantar School and a few Mangar Eco-club students for a nature trail at Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurgaon in September 2017. On our trail, we observed several kinds of birds, butterflies and a few other insects like blistering beetles.

The highlight of our trail was our introduction to this fine looking green-coloured Indian Stick Mantis. Mantises are insects that have a pure and aggressive predatory instinct. They take advantage of their ability to camouflage to take down insects without a fair warning.