A new genus and species of praying mantis (Insecta, Mantodea, Mantidae) from Indochina, with a key to Mantidae of South-East Asia

Abstract

Mekongomantis quinquespinosa gen. et sp. nov., a new Mantidae genus and species is described based on specimens from two localities—Lam Vien plateau in Vietnam and the environments of Umphang, Thailand. The new genus has five posteroventral spines on the forefemur, a feature previously unknown in any Mantidae (sensu stricto) genus. The rest of external morphology is similar to Tenodera Burmeister, 1838 and Mantis Linnaeus, 1758, while the characters of the male genitalia place the species more closely to Hierodula Burmeister, 1838 and Camelomantis Giglio-Tos, 1917. The discovery of such a large (>70 mm) genus level taxon exemplifies the poorly studied diversity of Mantodea in the rapidly deteriorating Greater Mekong area. To ease identification, we also provide a key to the Mantidae of South-East Asia.

A new species and first record of Vates Burmeister, 1838 from the Atlantic Rainforest (Mantodea: Vatinae)

“…The discovery of Vates phoenix sp. nov. joins other large-sized species discovered in recent times (Rodrigues et al 2017;Schwarz et al 2018), whereas current collecting efforts in tropical and extratropical areas of the globe, previously thought to be relatively well-sampled, have revealed both unrecognized praying mantis taxa as well as numerous new regional records (e.g., Helmkampf et al 2007;Ehrmann 2011;Schwarz & Konopik 2014;Wieland et al 2014;Tedrow et al 2015;Moulin et al 2017;Moulin 2018;Shcherbakov & Anisyutkin 2018). These studies showe that regional surveys in poorly explored regions, including the Atlantic Rainforest of southern Brazil, still have a lot to reveal.…”

Dracomantis Mirofraternus Gen. Et Sp. N., a New Genus and Species of Hierodulinae (Mantodea: Mantidae) From Vietnam

“…Vietnam harbours a very rich but still poorly studied Mantodea fauna, with many new taxa that were only very recently discovered and described (Stiewe & Shcherbakov, 2017;Shcherbakov, 2017;Schwarz et al, 2018;Vermeersch, 2018aVermeersch, , 2018bVermeersch et al, 2019). The description here presented of a new genus and species from the Vietnamese Central Highlands emphasises once again the huge gaps in our knowledge of extant Mantodea taxa.…”

New records of praying mantis (Mantodea) from Thailand

“…Recently, over 2,000 species, 450 genera, 59 subfamilies in 29 families are known through the distribution range (Wu & Liu, 2017;Schwarz & Roy, 2019). Among them, approximately 300 species were recorded in Southeast Asia and 75 species, 47 genera in 10 families have been recorded from Thailand (Mukherjee et al, 1995;Roy, 2009;Sureshan & Sambath, 2009;Ehrmann, 2002;Mukherjee et al, 2014;Ehrmann & Borer, 2015;Ghate et al, 2019;Mukherjee et al, 2017;Schwarz & Ehrmann, 2017;Schwarz et al, 2018;Vermeersch et al, 2019). Five new to Thailand species of the praying mantis are found in the collection of the Natural History Museum of the National Science Museum.…”