Todd Henson Photography

Carolina Mantis can be green, gray, or brown, and have shorter wings than some other mantis species. Their color varies because as nymphs they’re able to change color to match their environment when they molt.

The Carolina Mantis in the photo was seen in mid-September on a leaf presumably eating some of the other insects that were swarming another leaf nearby. I don’t know exactly what the other insects were, but there were many of them of various sizes, mostly red or orange. The Carolina Mantis was surrounded by some kind of debris. I don’t know if it was the remains of dead insects or something else entirely.