# Wild Caught Grass Mantis



## yen_saw (Aug 16, 2005)

Have a few pics of my wild caught female grass mantis.












Two of the oothecae, very small ooth, freshly laid ooth on the left, and 2-day old ooth on the right.






I keep three (2 F on the right about 2.5 inches and 1 M on the left about 2 inches) of them together, and another female alone. The one with the group is doing well.... another communal species yes!! Gave them D. Hydei and house flies but they prefer to catch large house flies even with very small forearm. Amazing species!


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## worldofmantis (Aug 16, 2005)

nice catch man :wink:


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## Andrew (Aug 16, 2005)

Nice catch! Good luck with the ootheca. :wink:


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## Max (Aug 16, 2005)

Wow Yen! Mother Nature Seems To Be Very Generous To You  . Good Luck Hatching The Ooth!


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## worldofmantis (Aug 17, 2005)

Yen i think you awre very skilled with mantids how long have you been doing it? Jeeze do you have like mantis sence and just find them no matter where they are? If so teach me your ways :roll:


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## Ian (Aug 17, 2005)

nice one yen!! You got a good breeding culture there, looks like the grass mantis may be spread worldwide after all :lol: 

Cheers,

Ian


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## garbonzo13 (Aug 17, 2005)

Good job Yen, keep up the good work buddy.


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## Christian (Aug 17, 2005)

Hi.

I have a question regarding the habitat of this species. Did you find them *in *the grass, that is on the grass stems *above* the ground, between the grass stems *on* the ground, or just in *open habitats* on the ground? This is of particular interest for me because this species belongs to the family Thespidae, many members of which are ground-living.

Thanks,

Christian


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## Jesse (Aug 17, 2005)

Another good find for Yen! I guess the US does have some neat natives.


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## yen_saw (Aug 17, 2005)

Hey thanks guys. I did not witness mating but as they were all wild caught and were put together before hopefully the oothecae are fertiled. Will update with the latest status.

Chris, no secret really, look for area close to reservoir with flowers and insects like damserfly, katydid, butterfly, etc... basically food source for mantis, and there is no private properties closeby where grasses are being cut and mowed regularly, go during a good sunny day with containers and nets. I wished i have "Mantis Sense" and be able to talk to them!!

Christian, the male grass mantis were caught on the open field (about 1 foot tall grass) while flying around, they resemble grasshoper when flying. I have not caught any of the male staying on the grass stem but it is so easy to miss them as they look exactly like a hay stick. All the female were found crawling on the tree bark... which is a surprise to me. Maybe they were about to lay ootheca becuase i found some empty tiny egg cases - which i assumed belongs to grass mantis - on the lower part of tree bark as well. I am sure there are female grass mantis on the open field too but missed it. The oothecae are so small, wonder if the hatchling be able to take fruit flies. Or i will just release them back to the field.

Well, so far the mantis species found in this area were carolina (L5-L6), stick mantis (almost all adults) and grass mantis (adults). Looking forward to discover more mantis species.


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## Rick (Aug 17, 2005)

Great find Yen. Are you going to be breeding these along with your stick mantids you caught? You don't have chinese mantids in Texas?


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## Reeves (Aug 17, 2005)

I wish I didn't live in Pennsylvania, I haven't seen a single non-European mantis all summer.


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## garbonzo13 (Aug 17, 2005)

Hey Yen   Did you find the grass mantis in the same area of the stick mantis? Doggone sticks have eluded me again. Seems like I find them ONLY when I am not looking for them.


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## worldofmantis (Aug 17, 2005)

garbonzo i looked for any type of mantis for years and one day out of the blue one lands on my bike lol And that just happens to be my european mantis wich i have givven the nick name mantina lol So a word of advice just pretend not to be looking for them lol


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## Christian (Aug 17, 2005)

Hi.

@yen saw: thanks for the info. Thespid males are often found on grass or other structures high above the ground. The fly fairly well. The observation on females on tree bark, however, is interesting. It would be good to know if the females live permanently on the bark or just in order to lay their ooth. Maybe you find more and can tell us more about the habitat.

Greets,

Christian


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## yen_saw (Aug 18, 2005)

@Greg: lol, it is harder to find grass mantis compared to stick mantis for sure. Stick mantis is about 5-6 inches with milky/yellowish antenna and long legs so easier to locate. Grass mantis on the other hand is only 2-3 inches and mimic the thin grass very well. So far total of BB found outnumber grass mantis by more than 6 times!!

@Rick: Yes, will try to breed both species and learn more about them, have hatched Brunneria Borealis ooth before but it was wild collected ooth, am new to grass mantis though have caught the male on several occasions, but the female gives me something new to look forward to. I'm yet to find a single chinese mantis or european mantis here, maybe they do not exist in this area? I only have until the end of this month to look for more mantids before my work is picking up again.

@Christian: No Problem. Will let you know what i can find out from this species. But one observation I had is this species will deposit the ootheca in the very top part of the cage/container, don't know if this means anything or any help at all but my guess would be they are mostly ground dwelling species and only come up to the tree to lay ootheca based on oothecae found on the tree bark.

Here are some of the female T. Graminis pics.











This one ripped the house flies head from its body, pretty amazing with a small and fragile looking forearm.


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## PseudoDave (Aug 18, 2005)

great piccies yen, as always


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## yen_saw (Sep 5, 2005)

After only 23 days of incubation, the little grass mantis ootheca hatched!! About 20 nymphs hatched and they all look (and act) exactly like the adult female except the stripe legs.





















The adults attacked their prey ferociously, would be interesting to see if the nymphs will do the same.


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