# Idolomantis diabolica L7 molt (video)



## Precarious (Dec 5, 2010)

Female Idolomantis diabolica molts perfectly to sub-adult.

Wait till you see how amazing this thing looks halfway through the video once she pulls out of the old skin. Hard to believe this is a real insect.

Skip ahead to 3:30 if you get impatient.

As you'll see she twists to grasp the leaves to her side in case the skin drops. Once she's dried enough she reaches past the old skin to the twigs above.

Soundtrack by Precarious

*UPDATE:* L7 is only pre-sub for female Idolos. Mantid is now L8 and only subadult.


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## warpdrive (Dec 5, 2010)

great video.

now I hate you so much. I just got 2x 12x12x12 and 1x 12x12x18 exoteras because of you. hey, it's my birthday soon so what the heck.

may as well add me to your list if you get lucky with them. I'll take the bus to boro park and get you some home made knishies and fresh bagels. come on, you know that's a fair trade. :lol: 

Harry


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## Precarious (Dec 5, 2010)

warpdrive said:


> great video.
> 
> now I hate you so much. I just got 2x 12x12x12 and 1x 12x12x18 exoteras because of you. hey, it's my birthday soon so what the heck.
> 
> ...


YUM!

Haha! That's exactly how many I have. Don't be a hater! You're going to LOVE the Exo-Terras!

Not much chance I'm going to get lucky with the Idolos because it looks like all 5 are female! L5, two L6s and two L7s.

ANYONE HAVE A MALE AVAILABLE??? Any age will do! :helpsmilie:


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## warpdrive (Dec 5, 2010)

PM Brian. if he has any left, he's great to deal with and lives in NJ.

Harry


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## Precarious (Dec 5, 2010)

warpdrive said:


> PM Brian. if he has any left, he's great to deal with and lives in NJ.
> 
> Harry


That's already in the works. But it's only one. I'd like to improve my chances.


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## sporeworld (Dec 5, 2010)

Fantastic video! Great job!


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## Precarious (Dec 6, 2010)

Sporeworld said:


> Fantastic video! Great job!


Thanks. Sorry it took longer than I thought to edit and post.

Hope yours Idolos are doing well.  

If you know anyone with a spare male hit me up!


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## sporeworld (Dec 6, 2010)

Just my lame lady, and ooths. Although Frey (Poland) mentioned having some recently - but no guarantees on live delivery (and it's a blizzard in Poland right now).


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## The Gex Files (Dec 6, 2010)

Great video!


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## animalexplorer (Dec 17, 2010)

Really cool video. Diabolica is the coolest! Watching them go through the molting process is so fascinating. It has been an average of 18-21 between molts for mine except the last one which I found out is a male, it took him 31 days to molt.


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## guapoalto049 (Dec 17, 2010)

Don't sell yourself short Precarious, if I'm not mistaken L7 is sub-sub adult for the ladies. She's got two more nail-biting molts to go! Lol I thought the same thing...


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## Precarious (Dec 17, 2010)

guapoalto049 said:


> Don't sell yourself short Precarious, if I'm not mistaken L7 is sub-sub adult for the ladies. She's got two more nail-biting molts to go! Lol I thought the same thing...


Good God! Are you sure? Those wing buds are pretty large. I never heard of a mantid going to L9. :blink:


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## myles (Dec 17, 2010)

suberb stuff as always , excellent video


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## Ricardo (Dec 17, 2010)

will she get the green coating with time?


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## Precarious (Dec 17, 2010)

Ricardo said:


> will she get the green coating with time?


Mine are all rust colored. There must be regional subspecies or something.


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## sporeworld (Dec 17, 2010)

They "go green" a few days after the last molt.

And, as far as I know, or can tell, there's only 8 molts.


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## guapoalto049 (Dec 17, 2010)

They are the same as shields: L7 is subadult for males and L8 is subadult for females. From doing a little research (and some application of my own) Dyar's Rule states that mantids will grow about 1.4x each molt. If this is the case, then my L7 "subadult" female Idolos would only be 8.3 cm as an adult. If you multiply that by 1.4 then you get ~11.75 cm, which is around the adult size of the Idolos I've seen.

Its a pretty neat little tool, it worked with a considerable amount of accuracy for my Chinese, shields, and violins growing up.

I noticed that my male shields at L7 were actually a little bigger than my L7 females, but since the females ended up having an extra molt, they ended up larger.


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## guapoalto049 (Dec 17, 2010)

Precarious said:


> Good God! Are you sure? Those wing buds are pretty large. I never heard of a mantid going to L9. :blink:


And PS since they're the KING of mantids, they can molt as many times as they want! Same thing goes for MEGAMANTIS/MECHA-MEGAMANTIS. I feel a showdown coming on...


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## Precarious (Dec 17, 2010)

guapoalto049 said:


> And PS since they're the KING of mantids, they can molt as many times as they want! Same thing goes for MEGAMANTIS/MECHA-MEGAMANTIS. I feel a showdown coming on...


Hey, they can molt as many times as they want as long as they keep growing! I could use an Idolo steed to ride across the wasteland once the economy collapses.

I guess I'll find out soon enough.


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## guapoalto049 (Dec 18, 2010)

Precarious said:


> I could use an Idolo steed


hahahaha


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## Ricardo (Dec 18, 2010)

I'm picturing precarious in clad armor, sword raised and flying into the sunset on his trusty Idolo steed XD

EDIT : and I think Santa should replace his reindeer with magical mantids


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## guapoalto049 (Jan 5, 2011)

Update: I'm completely wrong Precarious! If I learned how to count then I'd know my mantids are currently L6, not L7. L6 is sub-subadult and L7 is subadult. With all this education you'd figure I could count properly...


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## Precarious (Jan 5, 2011)

guapoalto049 said:


> Update: I'm completely wrong Precarious! If I learned how to count then I'd know my mantids are currently L6, not L7. L6 is sub-subadult and L7 is subadult. With all this education you'd figure I could count properly...


 :lol: Turns out you were right the first time!

One of my females molted to L8 and guess what? L8 is only subadult!

Check your wing buds against these. This is L8.







PS - I caught the whole process on video again. I'll post shortly.


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## guapoalto049 (Jan 5, 2011)

Haha I'm all screwed up. I'm almost positive mine have 2 molts left. They are both about 6cm now-how big are yours at L8?


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## Precarious (Jan 5, 2011)

guapoalto049 said:


> Haha I'm all screwed up. I'm almost positive mine have 2 molts left. They are both about 6cm now-how big are yours at L8?


Subadult stands about 3.5" high.

Presubs stand about 3" high.


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## guapoalto049 (Jan 5, 2011)

How about length?


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## Precarious (Jan 5, 2011)

guapoalto049 said:


> How about length?


Mine always have their butts up!

If I measure the top and add it to the bottom the L8 is about 3.25". L7 about 2.75".


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## guapoalto049 (Jan 5, 2011)

haha yeah mine too, they are so active its tough to measure. I just add the length of the abdomen to the thorax+head to get a rough estimate. You've got some beasts!


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## Precarious (Jan 6, 2011)

guapoalto049 said:


> haha yeah mine too, they are so active its tough to measure. I just add the length of the abdomen to the thorax+head to get a rough estimate. You've got some beasts!


 :lol: My estimates included the head gear.

I had mine out yesterday and the youngest molted to L7 hanging from a plant on my desk! I was spotting her the whole time and I put a heavily misted delicup under her to make sure she had enough humidity. Thankfully everything worked out. :sweatdrop:


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## guapoalto049 (Jan 6, 2011)

Ah ok. I've been keeping mine on the cool/humid side lately, their heat lamp broke! They eat so many flies though, I think I'm going to get some hornworm pods to add variety and give them something more than an appetizer.

Hopefully they'll still be going strong by summer. I get tons of luna, cecropia, and polyphemus moths around here, so they'll be living the good life!


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## sporeworld (Jan 6, 2011)

FYI, those moths start flying mid to late April.


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## guapoalto049 (Jan 6, 2011)

Even way up in northeastern PA? I've never seen them that early, maybe I should get my eyes checked. I'm assuming from your avatar that you aren't too keen on the idea of feeding big moths to mantids...


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## sporeworld (Jan 6, 2011)

Yeah, not too keen, but you know... circle of life and all that.

My idols were pretty frightened by katydids, so not sure how they'll deal with a luna or cecropia. I think they'd just freak and run. Also, idolos are a bit frail - I can see them getting damaged by flailing silkmoth wings. But we'll see....


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## Precarious (Jan 6, 2011)

Sporeworld said:


> My idols were pretty frightened by katydids, so not sure how they'll deal with a luna or cecropia. I think they'd just freak and run. Also, idolos are a bit frail - I can see them getting damaged by flailing silkmoth wings. But we'll see....


I've been feeding mine flying foxes and condors. :stuart: 

The other day they caught a guy in a hang glider.


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## warpdrive (Jan 6, 2011)

Precarious said:


> The other day they caught a guy in a hang glider.


if the cops come to investigate the death of the hang glider guy, just tell them what sporeworld says..."circle of life and all that."

Harry


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## guapoalto049 (Jan 6, 2011)

Sporeworld said:


> Yeah, not too keen, but you know... circle of life and all that.
> 
> My idols were pretty frightened by katydids, so not sure how they'll deal with a luna or cecropia. I think they'd just freak and run. Also, idolos are a bit frail - I can see them getting damaged by flailing silkmoth wings. But we'll see....


Ah ok, sorry to bring it up. I'll try and keep it to a minimum. I saw a picture of one somewhere on the internet with a ton of fuzz on it, with the caption saying it just ate an atlas moth. I forget where I saw it, but its pretty hard to believe.


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## angelofdeathzz (Jan 6, 2011)

Thats what you get when you hang glide through Idolo country.

when the cops come make sure you remove there side arm and mace, as it may give your girls gas.


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## Precarious (Jan 6, 2011)

guapoalto049 said:


> Ah ok, sorry to bring it up. I'll try and keep it to a minimum. I saw a picture of one somewhere on the internet with a ton of fuzz on it, with the caption saying it just ate an atlas moth. I forget where I saw it, but its pretty hard to believe.


A bit off subject but here is an extremely fuzzy Polyphemus moth I found in an abandoned train tunnel...


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## guapoalto049 (Jan 6, 2011)

Aww they look so innocent. I really shouldn't feed these things to mantids. Anyone use hornworms? These seem like good feeders for adult Idolo. If Chinese females can take them down I'm assuming Idolos can, since they're bigger.


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## Precarious (Jan 6, 2011)

guapoalto049 said:


> I'm assuming Idolos can, since they're bigger.


I don't think they like big prey. They generally freak out. Couldn't hurt to try though. Report your results.


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## sporeworld (Jan 6, 2011)

guapoalto049 said:


> Ah ok, sorry to bring it up. I'll try and keep it to a minimum. I saw a picture of one somewhere on the internet with a ton of fuzz on it, with the caption saying it just ate an atlas moth. I forget where I saw it, but its pretty hard to believe.


I'd be amazed if that was an Idolo - Atlas moths DWARF Cecropias! Theres are other bulkier (and more aggressive) species I could see doing it, though. (shiver).


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## guapoalto049 (Jan 6, 2011)

In terms of overall size, I don't think I've seen one bigger than Idolo. There are some longer ones I've seen but not in mass and foreleg size.

I just found the page! Idolo eats Atlas moth


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## animalexplorer (Feb 25, 2011)

Has anyones idolos molted since the last posted event? My females are still L7.


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## Precarious (Feb 26, 2011)

animalexplorer said:


> Has anyones idolos molted since the last posted event? My females are still L7.


I have 4 subadult females. One should molt very soon.

I know angelofdeathzz had a male and female molt to adult successfully. And I know one other forum member with adult females.

Males are still very much in demand.


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## sporeworld (Feb 26, 2011)

guapoalto049 said:


> In terms of overall size, I don't think I've seen one bigger than Idolo. There are some longer ones I've seen but not in mass and foreleg size.
> 
> I just found the page! Idolo eats Atlas moth


I didn't see any pics of it actually eatting an Atlas moth. Did I miss something...? I don't really WANT to see it, but you know... Now that it's in my head... I kinda want to see it... ;-) Just the logistics alone are boggling...


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## guapoalto049 (Feb 26, 2011)

The captions are in German, but it does mention it ate an Attacus atlas. I never said the photo was of an Idolo in the process of eating one. The page claims the photo is the aftermath, which I find hard to believe!


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## guapoalto049 (Feb 26, 2011)

Lol and I was the same way, not that I wanted this thing to be eating the biggest moth, but if it mentions it you start thinking what if...


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