Hi Maurits,
Apparently they are Purple-winged Mantids. Certainly seem to be plenty around.
Very interesting for me was your mention of the choughs. There was a family of choughs (4 adults) who have raised two lots of young in a tree on the bush block
on the corner of Hales St and Edinburgh Ave, ANU (two the first time and then another two). I have kept Constanza Leon informed of all their activities and she banded the second two. One of the adults was also banded so Constanza must have banded it at some
other time. The second two, sadly, had very unsightly facial growths which Constanza hadn’t seen on young ones before. She didn’t know what caused it. One of the young ones was run over by a speeding car in Hales St a few weeks ago but you probably saw
the second one with the others.
The choughs usually are around ANU, especially near the Shine Dome, so it is interesting they’ve gone a bit further afield.
Cheers,
Susan Robertson
From: Maurits Zwankhuizen [
Sent: Monday, 6 February 2017 5:39 PM
To: Susan Robertson;
Subject: Re: Entomologists' corner
Hi Susan,
I saw 4 last week from a window on the 9th floor of Capital Tower and this morning there was one in the reception of my office building. Both buildings are in New Acton and all of the mantids were
light brown in colour rather than the usual green.
In what might be a related sighting, yesterday there was a family of choughs wandering through New Acton for the first time that I can recall.
Regards,
Maurits Zwankhuizen
From: Susan Robertson <>
Sent: Monday, 6 February 2017 2:15 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Entomologists' corner
During the past week we’ve seen, or had reported to us, 6 praying mantids around the New Acton area both up high (13th floor) and at ground level. Looking at the ‘Field
Guide to Insects in Australia’ (Zborowski and Storey) they seem to be a Tenodera species.
Susan Robertson
