As for your list I can only give you an explanation of Northern Mantis, not that I don't know anything about the others. But I'm better off leaving you with better skilled & knowledgeable practitioners for the other arts.
As far as Northern Mantis: link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Praying_Mantis_(martial_art)
My own take on Northern Mantis from my experience via (7 Star Praying Mantis)
Is it has a lot of fast techniques, with emphasis on joint locking and tie-ing the opponent up by mixing techniques from high-low and right-left alternations. It also has an emphasis on whats called the gong & yao concepts. Meaning hard-soft, it uses soft to counter hard and hard to decimate the opponent.
Also of use is the training of seung kua or of sinking the hips, this is to create distance form the opponent when in close range.
Generally the Northern Mantis system is a close range style but has a lot of tools for long distance. Especially with whats taken from Chang Quan. (note not modern chang quan)
The Qigong routine that is commonly used is called the Shi Ba Luo Han Qi Gong. Which consists as titled 18 sections. Each section has two parts moving qi gong and whats known as San Gong. Which is the static posture for releasing the energy.
There are generally 88 known forms in the 7 star praying mantis system but a lot of Sifu's have added more and some have taken out quite a few as well.
But Wong Long himself was known to have created 3 forms and everything after that was added from other systems or Masters.
That's pretty much a brief low down on Northern Mantis again I can only speak for Chat Sing Tong Long (xi xing tong long) not any other lineage or style.
Hope this helps
