CLOSED: Small, mantis-like insect, laying eggs on my porch

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morningdove225 Neptune, NJ(Zone 7a) Sep 17, 2015

I was hoping someone might be able to help me identify this insect now that it's laid hundreds of eggs on my front porch post!

It was very small...maybe about an inch or less in length. It appears to be a mantis-like insect to me, but I've never seen (and cannot find online) one that is this small. When it was done, it flew away so maybe I was wrong, but it looks like it has 4 thin legs, and two thicker legs bunched up (like a mantis) on the segment below its head.

Can anyone help? (I'm in Central New Jersey.)

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Flapdoodle Minot, ND Sep 17, 2015

This is Zeugomantispa minuta, a mantidfly in the order Neuroptera - http://www.americaninsects.net/n/zeugomantispa-minuta.html
Nice find!

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morningdove225 Neptune, NJ(Zone 7a) Sep 17, 2015

Thank you so much for your help!

(I don't have a lot of experience in this area, but aren't the eggs she's laying COOL?)

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Diana_K Contra Costa County, CA(Zone 9b) Sep 18, 2015

Incredible how neatly arranged they are! And all angled the same way.
Insects can do some really neat things.

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