Can I feed fruit flies to adult spiny flower mantis?

[Thrillhouse]

They seem much smaller than my ghosts, which are sub adults and eating small crickets. I definitely preferred feeding them fruit flies because I didn't have to worry about feeding or injuries. Is the spiny flower mantis small enough to feed fruit flies (hydei then melonogaster) its entire life?

Are there any other small species that are okay with just fruit flies?

 

[CosbyArt]

@Thrillhouse Nope. The spiny flower mantis (Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii) (1.5" adults (3.8cm)) will need much larger prey than any fruit fly variety as the mantis grows.

See the YouTube video here of one of them at L7 (sub-adult) taking a black soldier fly (5/8" (1.6cm)) feeder.

For size reference Hydei FF is only 1/8" (0.3cm) and Melanogaster FF is 1/16" (0.16cm), compared to the immensely larger black soldier fly at 5/8" (1.6cm). When I had the species they would readily eat houseflies, bottles flies, small crickets, and moths - and I would never have thought of feeding them any tiny fruit flies after L4 I think it was (it has been awhile).

In reality there are likely some mantid species that could even as adults eat fruit flies, but I do not know of any of hand. The smallest species I have kept so far was the Japanese boxers (Acromantis japonica) that max out at 1" (2.5cm), but even they needed larger prey and also ate bottle flies and moths with gusto.