I Got Another Mini Mantis

Some of you might remember a topic a posted a year back of one of my boy Stagmomantis carolina that skipped a shedding, resulting in a mini sized adult. Well, it just happened again only this time with a female Stagmomantis carolina. I was expecting Trumpet, one of my precious little ladies, to shed to sub-adult only for her to shed to adulthood. Just to make sure I wasn't going crazy, I decided to wait for her sister from the same ootheca to also have her next shedding and sure enough her sister shed to a sub-adult. Thus I am left staring at a mini adult that is about the size of a normal sub-adult for the species. :wub:

I know it is practically criminal to post a topic about an adorable mini mantis and not include any photos, but I do plan to take some in a couple of days. I wanted to wait for her sister to have a chance to fully harden so I can take some photos of them together to best show off the unusual size discrepancy.

@Krissim Klaw Wow amazing! Can't wait for pics!

Interesting the variables that show if you raise enough to get comparisons. I would imagine in the wild the really small would not make it to adult under most cases.

Waiting as patient as I can for pics.

Im pretty sure my bugsey is a mini one to. I looked up males for chinese smaller then those.

I've heard of mantids skipping molts straight to adulthood. Some go through all the molts but are small for an adult mantis of its species. Yours @Jessie is just a smaller adult, you've shown me pics and it molted from pre sub to sub to adult. Idk what causes the molt skipping though, very interesting. 

I might have one male that skipped a molt as well. To be fair I lost count on many of them due to shear numbers but I was sure he had two molts left and he's about half the size of all my other adults. He's adorable regardless of how he became a runt but its interesting to know they can skip a molt. I'll have to pay more attention in the future just to be sure, FOR SCIENCE!

I'll try to add my own comparison photo tomorrow just for fun and cuteness.

@crabbypatty @Zeppy44 @Jessie @Teamonger

Sorry for the sluggish update. Here are some photos of my pretty girl.

First off one of Trumpet (on the right) with her sub-adult sister (on the left) who is only a few days younger than her. As you can see her sister who is only a sub-adult is if anything a little larger than her in length.



Next up I have a photo of her with an adult male of the same species. With the size difference I find it really questionable if a mating could even take place successfully.



Finally just a nice little photo of her pretty self on some leaves. Minus her miniature stature she seems proportionally fairly normal.

Awesome, never seen that mutation (or molt skipping) before.  Thanks for sharing

@Krissim Klaw omg she's adorable! Hmm, about mating, idk, shes really tiny. I suppose you can try, it wouldn't hurt. Wow pretty amazing though, keep us updated!

she's so cute!

They are adorable! Just had two tiny ones hatch today. Hope melanogasters are not too big for them. Would springtails be better? 

I have a male budwing doing that, so weird.