Chinese flower mantis

Creobroter nebulosa

Creobroter or flower mantises is a genus of mantis concentrated in Western Asia. The name comes from the Greek "kreas" (combining form "kreo-", meaning "flesh"), and "broter" (eating); therefore, "flesh-eating", an apt name for a predatory insect. Both sexes have long wings and are capable fliers. Full-grown males are about 3 to 4 cm in length, females about 4 to 5 cm.
A terrible mistake This fly landed on the windowsill and was cleaning itself. Molly was hungry so out she came. I almost feel sorry for the fly, it didn't stand a chance! These are by far my favorite insects! Chinese flower mantis,Creobroter Nebulosa,molly,praying mantis

Appearance

As the common name indicates, Creobroter are known for having varicolored (yellow, white, red, brown, etc.) markings which serve as camouflage by hiding the creatures' actual shape and making them look somewhat like flowers when hiding amidst green foliage. The resemblance to flowers may be greater in sub-adult Creobroter than those that are fully grown.
Molly the Mantis Wanted one of these amazing alien like creatures for a long time. Done a lot of research on them and hope to do a lot more! She's (I think it's a she!) is an L3 instar nymph so she will do some growing. At the moment she is about an inch in size!! Her species is Creoboter Nebulosa and apparently she is a Chinese Flower Mantis. as I believe the species Creoboter Nebulosa encompasses a number of different species, such as the Indian Flower Mantis. Chinese flower mantis,Creobroter Nebulosa,Fall,Geotagged,United Kingdom,praying mantis

Naming

Zheng 1988
All grown up My little Molly is all grown up now. She had her final molt 2 days ago. It's hard to believe that she was all squashed in her exoskeleton! She now has wings too! She's loving the mealworms at the moment - she's got such an amusing personality :) Hard to believe she used to look like this: http://www.jungledragon.com/image/33749/molly_the_mantis.html Chinese flower mantis,Creobroter Nebulosa

Food

Insects
Feeding time! She stalked and killed a fruit fly - it would appear that when they are eating, they don't let anything get in the way of them finishing their meal! Another fruit fly was also walking around and she was stalking that too!!! Greedy guts!! Did give me the opportunity to get a better shot of her though :) Chinese flower mantis,Creobroter Nebulosa,praying mantis

Defense

Camouflage

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderMantodea
FamilyHymenopodidae
GenusCreobroter
SpeciesCreobroter nebulosa
Photographed in
United Kingdom