Pseudocreobotra wahlbergi
Sunčana Bradley · CC-BYHarmless. No venom, no sting, and no capacity to hurt a person. The display it puts on when threatened is bluff, and it is aimed at birds rather than at you.
Sub-Saharan Africa, chiefly the east and south. Not North American; any here is a kept animal.
Scrub, savannah and garden vegetation in eastern and southern Africa.
The spiral markings are a deimatic display rather than camouflage: when something approaches, the mantis rears, spreads the forewings and presents two large eye-like targets at once. A bird reading that as a much larger animal hesitates, which is all the mantis needs. The rest of the time it sits among flowers as an ambush predator, and it is an unusually active hunter for a flower mantis — it will stalk prey rather than only waiting.
Nothing in the wild. In captivity it is regarded as a good species for someone past their first mantis: it wants warmth, moderate humidity and flying prey, and it is bolder and easier to observe than most because it does not spend the day hiding.
A green and cream spiral, one on each forewing. It is a threat display — flashed suddenly, the pair look like large eyes to a predator.
It is bluff. There is no venom, no sting and nothing behind the threat. The whole point is to buy a second's hesitation.
The orchid mantis has broad petal-shaped leg lobes and no wing spirals; this one has spined legs and the paired spiral markings. The orchid mantis is also substantially larger as an adult female.
Identify another animal from a photo or return to the Mantises guide.
Last reviewed 2026-07-30. We identify, we don’t diagnose — what we can and can’t tell you.