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I am going up to some relatives in the mountains for thanksgiving. They live at about 5,000 feet and I will be gone for three days. So I am wondering if high altitude has any bad affects on mantises. My mantis is an adult female california mantis. I know that I could leave her at home, but she...

Two days ago, all my bluebottles ran out, leaving me with no food. Now today, still none of the second batch have hatched. My mantis, an adult female california mantis, had gone without food for two days. So, desparate, I made up something I call Fruit Fly mash. I went out to the compost and...

Back in July, I released a bunch of chinese mantids into my backyard. I also took a bunch of pictures, but have forgotten to post them until now. Enjoy! When the put the lid down in the tomato bed, she just stood there. Still not getting off. :( Finally she got off the lid, and now...

I have a adult female california mantis. She has not mated, and I do not plan on mating her, so I have not been expecting her to lay a fertile ootheca. But I have been expecting her to lay an infertile one. She has been an adult for more than 3 1/2 months. She is enormously fat, even eating just...

Does anybody have an adult male Stagmomantis californica (California mantis) that they would be willing to sell me? PM me if interested.

I had a bad scare yesterday with one of my mantids. One of my Stagmomantis californicas started to molt, but about a minute into it, fell head first off the ceiling of its cage onto the ground. I picked it up and placed it at an angle on my hand, so that it could use gravity to get out of the...

I have decided to post my collection of mantis micrographs. A micrograph is a picture taken by a microscope. A few of them have poor resolution, but it was the best I could do. Enjoy! First up, the pictures of dead nymphs. They are either Stagmomantis californica, or Iris oratoria, I don't...

I have a Stagmomantis californica nymph. It was bright green, active, and seemingly fine in the morning. Then I left for a couple of hours and when I came back it had molted. The odd thing is, it is now covered in little black dots and streaks. Its behavior looks normal. Could it be an infection...

I had seven L1 Stagmomantis californica nymphs and four of them died. So I decided to take some close up pictures of the poor dead nymphs. Here they are, enjoy! Side of nymph. Nymph head. Close up on the eye. Can you see the individual lenses in the compound? Posterior of a nymph...

I have four little Stagmomantis californica nymphs that have not molted yet. There cage is filled with many of these tiny little white compost bugs. My mantises concentrate on one bug, follow it around, and then snatch at it. Except they always miss or hit the little white bug and send it...

This is a very basic question that has probably been asked before, its just that the search function on this site doesn't work very well. Anyway, question: When people talk about L1, L2 etc mantises, is that age? Number of molts? What is it?

I had a medium sized Stagmomantis californica ootheca that hatched yesterday. According to what I have read, most oothecas hatch about 50-200 little nymphs. So far, it looks as if this ootheca has only hatched about 25. Should I wait for more mantises to come out, or is this just an ootheca with...

Back in the fall of 2006, I had a medium sized--1.5 in (3.8 cm) long-- green Stagmomantis californica. She laid a fine ootheca that hatched today, but a couple days after laying, her abdomen started expanding sideways, and the expansion was brown. The expanded part got bigger until her abdomen...

In fall of 2006 I found a large brown california mantid that laid a small ootheca and then promptly died. I kept the ootheca in a warm, dry room until march. Now it is outside in a homemade cage which I mist once daily. I live in the central valley of california and it is getting hot here, so...