"Bush Tiger" Praying Mantis Discovery

Riley Tedrow, a student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, discovered the new species of praying mantis in the mountainous Nyungwe Forest National Park in Rwanda, Africa. Tedrow, a former Kirtlandia Research Intern at the Museum, was part of a research team led by Dr. Gavin Svenson, curator of invertebrate zoology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History and adjunct professor at the university.

The new praying mantis species is named Dystacta tigrifrutex, which means “bush tiger mantis.” It is named for the female, whose features indicate that she hunts prey only on the ground and in the forest undergrowth. The name was inspired by the female’s hunting methods, which are similar to a tiger, a fierce predator and the world’s largest cat species. The female is wingless while the male has large wings and can fly.

In May 2013, Tedrow collected the female and male insects while conducting field research with Svenson in Rwanda. The team used bright lights at night to lure the insects out of the thick forest. Tedrow picked up the male and female by hand from the forest floor after using this light trapping method.

The female later laid an egg case, called an ootheca. This allowed the researchers to study the insect’s emerging nymphs. The female, male, egg case and nymphs were all described in the research publication. It is rare in an insect species description for scientists to be able to describe all of these components at one time.

“We knew this mantis was special after completing nearly eight months of work to identify all the specimens found during the three-week expedition,” said Tedrow, who is studying evolutionary biology. “The new species is amazing because the fairly small female prowls through the underbrush searching for prey while the male flies and appears to live higher in the vegetation.”