Chinese Mantis (Tenodera sinensis)

The Chinese mantis is a species of praying mantis. Originating from China, they were first introduced to North America around 1895 as a source of pest control. Since then, the species has spread throughout much of southern New England, and the Northeast United States, and ootheca can be purchased from plant nurseries nationwide. The Chinese mantis looks like a long and slender praying mantis, with different shades of brown. It is typically larger than most other mantises, adult females are about 10 cm in length, and is the largest mantis species in North America. This species is often erroneously given the taxonomic name of ''Tenodera aridifolia sinensis''; when first classified, it was thought that ''T. sinensis'' was a subspecies of ''T. aridifolia'' but this is not the case.

Their diet consists primarily of other insects, though adult females can sometimes take down small vertebrate prey such as reptiles and amphibians . Like some other mantids, they are known to be cannibalistic. The female can produce several spherical ootheca roughly the size of a table tennis ball, containing up to 400 eggs. The ootheca are often affixed to vegetation such as bushes and small trees, as seen in the image below.

Their color can vary from overall green to brown with a green lateral stripe on the edge of the front wings. In low light the eyes of the mantis appear black, but in daylight appear to be clear, matching the color of the head.