Recent content by Nicolas

Haha Cello Mantis would be funny. A question I have is, unlike the ghost mantids, what exactly determines a Sphodromantis' color? Do they have eating preferences? They are usually brown or green, right? Also, these grow in size similar to Heirodula species so I was wondering what is much...

Are spiders immune to it or something? 

I get that, but this is an extremely aggressive species that eats/attacks anything that moves in her home (including me sometimes when I try to move things around!)  Her forearms upon grabbing also usually just kill the bugs she catches straight up. Part of why I love aggressive mantids so much...

So sometimes around here food becomes somewhat "scarce", besides a bunch of different types of spiders lingering around. I have fed some of them to a mantis of mine and I was wondering if this could have any potential adverse effects. She is a chainsaw at spiders and crickets alike so it doesn't...

Definitely great photos! 

I've never had a ghost mantis before. I should really get one. 

Hey everyone.  My last mantid passed away roughly a year ago to date, and I have been busy thus far... have a lady friend who is interested in weird pets and I was thinking about Mantids again. I also saw some at a pet store (Giant asians for $24.99?)  What species should I go for this round...

None of my females ever exhibit active hostility towards me when I attempted to handle them. It only happened to males, usually the older males too. Is it really the cranky life-is-almost-finished phase? I thought it had to do with them being cranky about not mating. 

He's definitely a he. I just took that picture specifically to make him seem like a really big guy! Here's more pics: 

Nope, he's a male! He just happened to be particularly well fed here - look at abdominal segments and you'll see something's off for him to be a her :P

By this I mean while handling. For example, today, I was cleaning out the enclosure of my adult male African mantis and as I was trying to get him to go back into his enclosure, he just clamped on my ring finger and would not let go! I eventually got him to let go with a bit of effort and to my...

Could also bury him! Use a little box as a casket. 

Sometimes, like in my case with one of my African mantids, the breeder had no females available! :(

Native to Vegas too. Kind of interesting to see how a mantis would thrive in a desert, eh? 

I believe males fly a lot too!