Bug FAQSlim Mexican Mantis
Bistanta mexicana · Order: Mantodea · Family: Thespidae
Slim Mexican mantises are slender and elongated with relatively small heads. Their bodies are shades of brown or tan, sometimes appearing grayish.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
They are slender and elongated with small heads compared to their bodies.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Their coloration ranges from brown to tan, occasionally appearing grayish.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
They occur in Mexico, Central America, Arizona, southern Texas, and parts of New Mexico.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 3 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Louisiana, Arizona.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Same family (Thespidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bistanta
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.