# BACK FROM THAILAND



## PookaDotted (Jun 16, 2014)

Hey everybody! I AM BACK!!

So I DID find some wild praying mantids but they were not adults, so I have no idea what they were. One was only a first or second instar, they were on a fence post on the outside of the chiang mai zoo, and were eating ants. There were soooo many ants, ugh, and they were on everything. BUT I got a photo of the sub adult mantis that jumped on my hubbies hand when my hubby presented it to the mantis. It was quite hilarious and swayed him into really liking the idea of me having these little bugs in the house haha. When we walked away after he forced the green dude off my hubby (Man they are fast and agile and didnèt want to leave his arm) we were halfway up the hill entrance to the zoo when my hbby looked down to the right and saw a teeny nymph on his cheek bone looking to pick a fight. he was gently removed as well and placed back in his original spot haha. 

Later that day we also went to the chiang mai bug zoo, which was pretty neat. They had walls and walls of pinned insects, and they were breeding mantids, hercules beetles, butterflies, and various other insects and arachnids. It was quite cool. my hubby held a scorpion, he was excited but it was not that interesting to me. I have held lots of scorpions and the same species are in the pet trade in canada. They had two huge green house-like rooms outside tht they released the butterlfies into. they then collected the caterpillars and fed them till they metamorphasised into chysalis, and then butterflies. it as pretty awesome. They had quite a few different species of mantids, i had no idea what they were because im not that well versed in mantid identification, but they were quite beautiful. The hercules beetles were awesome too, and FREAKING HUGE. I also fed elephants, pet tigers, shook hands with a monkey, visited temples, was blessed by a monk, and did numerous other things while i was there, but I know you want to see the photos of the bugs I saw, so I will upload them ASAP and post them here.


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## HungryGhost (Jun 17, 2014)

Welcome back, sounds like a great trip! Looking forward to the photos.


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## bobericc (Jun 17, 2014)

sounds like you had fun, can't wait to see pics of the mantids


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## PookaDotted (Jun 17, 2014)




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## PookaDotted (Jun 17, 2014)




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## PookaDotted (Jun 17, 2014)




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## PookaDotted (Jun 17, 2014)




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## PookaDotted (Jun 17, 2014)




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## PookaDotted (Jun 17, 2014)




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## sally (Jun 18, 2014)

Wow!! Those are fantastic pictures. What a great experience.


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## RobR1976 (Jun 18, 2014)

Awesome trip!


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## TheBeesKnees (Jun 19, 2014)

JFC I didn't even know whe HAD a bug museum in Thailand &gt;8|
Looks like I'll be making a road trip up north once I return from canada. I wonder if they'll sell me a giant dead leaf nymph or two (I see them there, on your hands)!

Exciting photos, too! That little green guy on the wall is a Heirodula sp.! One of my favorite local species to raise so far!
Them Dynastids look amaaaazing as well.


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## PookaDotted (Jun 19, 2014)

YES! they were on the same road as the monkey school and a few other attractions, it was really cheat from what i can remember between 50-200 baht I cant remember exactly. Totally worth it though, they had ant lions and loooots of different types of mantids. Also, if you have money... you can usually buy anything you want in Thailand hahaha so i'm sure they'll sell some to you. They had ooths too!


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## TheBeesKnees (Jun 21, 2014)

haha it's true, Thai establishments will sell you anything, even if it's not what they're actually selling (I once ordered a drink with a meal from a place--they didn't have the specific drink I asked for but told me to hang on a second. Someone ran down the street, bought it from another store, and then they just sold that to me at cost lmaaaaoooo. If I knew they were going to do that, I would have just ordered something else to spare them all the trouble!)

But I'm really excited to hear about all the mantids and the ooths! I would never have thought such a thing existed in thailand. The culture seems more interested in eating insects (which is suprisingly delish) as opposed to raising them for hobby. Insect keeping/collecting is even more an oddity here than it is in North America it seems...
And at 50-200 baht (that's only around $1.50-$6!!) I'll definately be paying this place a visit o___o Bless this thread, haha!


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## PookaDotted (Jun 21, 2014)

|?they had a bunch of different sp. It was hella cheap, i guess because the upkeep of that place is so low. they have huge concrete circles with screen overtop that they breed crickets in, and they just grab ants and throw them in the antlion cage, they also throw in little bug they find to the mantids, they had a LOT of mature females when i was there, they were huge and looked gravid. they had a ton of containers with the mesh glued on top just like we do for our mantids full of nymphs, and ooths, and i bet you they would sell you one but im not sure at what cost. They had a gift shop full of pinned insects, and earrings made of real butterfly wings which were absolutely beautiful but im allergic to anything thats not real gold or silver so i decided not to take my chances because its hard to tell what is and what isnt and it would suck to buy them only to find out id have to give them away as a gift. 

They have a butterfly room as well, they release the butterflies in that room when they emerge and they can fly. Its definitely worth it. Any taxi knows where it is but its on the same main road as the monkey school and cobra place. GO GO GO GO!!


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## Ralphys_Mantids (Jul 18, 2014)

Lots of pretty insects


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## Retpallylol (Jul 20, 2014)

Great pictures, thanks for sharing! Do you or anyone else here know what species of mantis the green ones are?


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## PookaDotted (Jul 20, 2014)

They look like a hierudela species.


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## MantidBro (Jul 20, 2014)

I. Need. To. Go. To. Thailand!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome photos and damn I have to go there.

That looks to be a Heirodula on the sidewalk!! I'm not sure of the exact species though.


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## dmina (Aug 7, 2014)

WOW... Great Pics...

Thanks for sharing


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## happy1892 (Sep 24, 2014)

PookaDotted said:


>


Interesting looking letters the language has, different from Vietnamese which uses pretty much English looking letters. Oops. I think they misidentified the picture of "Deroplatys dessicata" because it looks like a truncatata (or shelfordi) female. And the unlabeled photo above the "Creobroter gemmatus" mating pair and the green Hierodula/Sphodromantis like adult male below the photo labeled "Tenodera sinensis". I wonder if they mean by putting the unlabeled pictures right above or under the labeled picture in the little box that they are the same species. The one above Creobroter gemmatus is probably a Theopropus elegans and the one below Tenodera sinensis is different from a Tenodera sinensis.

I hope the scorpions are not killing each other.


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## Peter Clausen (Sep 25, 2014)

I gotta ask...did you eat any bugs on the trip?

Great photos!


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## Extrememantid (Oct 11, 2014)

happy1892 said:


> Interesting looking letters the language has, different from Vietnamese which uses pretty much English looking letters. Oops. I think they misidentified the picture of "Deroplatys dessicata" because it looks like a truncatata (or shelfordi) female. And the unlabeled photo above the "Creobroter gemmatus" mating pair and the green Hierodula/Sphodromantis like adult male below the photo labeled "Tenodera sinensis". I wonder if they mean by putting the unlabeled pictures right above or under the labeled picture in the little box that they are the same species. The one above Creobroter gemmatus is probably a Theopropus elegans and the one below Tenodera sinensis is different from a Tenodera sinensis.
> 
> I hope the scorpions are not killing each other.


That is a communal species of scorpion... Don't worry lol


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## happy1892 (Oct 12, 2014)

Extrememantid said:


> That is a communal species of scorpion... Don't worry lol


Are they Pandinus imperator?


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## Extrememantid (Oct 12, 2014)

happy1892 said:


> Are they Pandinus imperator?


Nope, Heterometrus sp. it's hard to tell for sure from a picture. I think to be 100% accurate you have to count hairs or something. The common name is generally "Asian forest scorpions"


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