Adults are commonly 75–95 mm long, with females usually larger.
Fine-art photographic collection
Hierodula membranacea
A powerful ambush hunter that judges prey by the angle it occupies in its enormous compound eyes.
About this species
Giant Asian Mantis
Hierodula membranacea(Burmeister, 1838)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Hierodula membranacea is one of the largest Asian mantises. It hunts from shrubs and low trees, detecting movement with a highly visual predatory system and launching a rapid strike with spined forelegs.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Mantodea · Mantidae · Hierodula
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
South and Southeast AsiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
South and Southeast Asia
Forest margins, gardens, scrub and dense shrub vegetation.
Diurnal and crepuscular ambush predator.
A wide range of insects and, occasionally, other small animals it can overpower.
Solitary; eggs are protected in a hardened ootheca.
What makes this species remarkable?
Prey choice is controlled partly by angular size: the mantis responds not simply to an animal’s real dimensions, but to how large and fast it appears across the retina.
Field observations found ambush sites concentrated in structurally dense shrubs, turning plant architecture itself into part of the mantis’s hunting equipment.
The strike unfolds in a fraction of a second: the raptorial forelegs open, sweep forward and close their opposing spines around prey before it can react.
Sources and scientific references
More photographs
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