Thanks for the question and pictures.

Perhaps inadvertently your question raised an issue about which biologists (I am a biologist and taught at the UM for many years) have discussed for innumerable years. It concerns the term “native species”. To some extent it defies a precise definition. Example: there was a point in time, probably at least two or three hundred years ago, perhaps even longer, when the common pigeon was not found in Minnesota. I’m pretty sure that pigeons are now present in various places in Anoka County. So would you consider the pigeon a “native species”? The rule of thumb that we biologists go by is that a native species is one that has existed in a particular ecosystem for a “long time” (purposefully undefined) and which has been subjected to natural evolutionary processes within that ecosystem. This is in contrast to what are termed “exotic species”. These are species that in the majority of cases have been intentionally and recently introduced into an ecosystem under which they have not undergone the evolutionary pressures normally present in that ecosystem. Please bear with me. I live in Duluth. For the last few years I have had cardinals at my winter feeders. Twenty years or so ago this was unheard of in Duluth. So whether or not cardinals can be considered a native species for Duluth, or simply a species that has responded to a warming climate in our area, is just semantics.

To answer your question and after my lecture to you, I do not believe this is a praying mantis. Rather it is a creature that somewhat resembles a praying mantis: a Two-spotted tree cricket (Neoxabea bipunctata). Records of its existence in Minnesota go back for hundreds of years. Specifically it lacks the forelegs typically found in a praying mantis. There have been periodic reports that the Chinese Mantis (Tenodera sinensis) exists in Minnesota. This particular species has a characteristic dorsal green stripe. I don’t see this in the insect whose picture you sent me. Take a look at the following sites:

https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/908335

https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.php?identification=Two-Spotted-Tree-Cricket

https://www.almanac.com/praying-mantis-predator-garden

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Insects/Chinese_mantis.html

Thanks so much for your question, your pictures, and your curiosity.

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Whoever responded to my email is an ignorant human not qualified to be an insect identification person! I own 4 Seasons Pest Control and have almost 30 years of field experience.  I know my Insects! I am very disappointed in the response I received! Get another job!

Sorry to read your response.  It was based upon consultation with various insect identifications keys as well as with my colleagues in the Entomology Department at the University of Minnesota.

Thanks again for consulting us.