# Very proud today!



## captainmerkin (Jul 16, 2007)

Just had a horrific day in the office but got home to a lovely treat!

The first of my 5 Ghost mantis P.Paradoxia had just hit adulthood and now looks absolutely amazing and much much larger than the skin it shed (compared to previous sheds)

very proud as this is the first I have brought from nymph to adult so far, 2 are close behind and 2 are about 2 weeks behind, time to feed them up  

heres a few pics in my sitting room.

these have been kept in a 50 gallon tank since I recieved them, occasionally being taken out for individual feeding before holiday, 90% humidity and around 20 - 30 degrees C, not a single death so far and these are by far the nicest ones to handle, very docile and very calm... but the adult is a fast mover!

Unsure if male or female, but assume male due to speedy reach of adulthood.

have a feeling that my orchid only has 2 sheds to go as well, very chuffed right now (I know its no crowning achievement but getting my first one to adulthood is a real treat outside of the zoo where I work! hopefully will be able to give some to them in the near future if they shag  )


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## robo mantis (Jul 16, 2007)

Looks like a female to me from those pics


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## yen_saw (Jul 16, 2007)

Congrate! it is a male adult ghost mantis, (thinner "horn", diamond shape shield, and thick antenna) They appear to require the same numebr of moult to mature into adult. Best of luck in breeding this wonderful species.


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## Asa (Jul 16, 2007)

Yep, you were right, its a boy!


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## captainmerkin (Jul 16, 2007)

> Congrate! it is a male adult ghost mantis, (thinner "horn", diamond shape shield, and thick antenna) They appear to require the same numebr of moult to mature into adult. Best of luck in breeding this wonderful species.


sorry geezah, which is the "horn" and where should I be looking for the diamond shape?

perhaps comparing female with male would explain all!

some of the things that stood out to me were these:

colour change, this one went from bright light green to these colours in its last shed to adult (they all have the fav location in the tank and will return there from anywhere else in it)

antanae have grown to maybe 3 x 4 times previous length

wings, holy toss pots of monkey island these really are more impressive than I could ever have imagined!! the chameoflage is incredible on them down to the very texture of the wings being like dead leaves!

mantis size, this just tripled no ! I was expecting another 2 - 3 moults before adult due to the size but it just jumped a huge amount to be 3 times larger than it was this morning!

temprement, this one is moving far far more than previously, walking all around the tank and sitting still for 20 mins then moving all over again also seems twice as keen to get onto my hand without encouragement!

not sure if anyone interested but heres a little synopsis since I bought them:

day 1 - month 1: kept all 5 in a small tank perspex with 2 mesh sides (fed 10 - 50 fruit flies every 3 days)

month 1 - 4: kept in 50+ gallon glass tank with moss and ferns, fruit left to rot and self culturing fruit flies were the food

african giant millipedes put in at 3rd month

notes on hunting/feeding: these guys actively sought out their food and situated themselves above the rotting fruits and fly culture most of the time, each mantis moves back to its own spot when abdomen inflated (full of flies). When introduced to tank humidity was around 50 - 60% for first 2 months, then raised to 90% when millipedes introduced.

before holiday mantis were all taken out and fed a wax moth if they looked skinny, they were "never" since being put in 50 gal tank sprayed and never drank visibly from that point onwards (high humidity?)

these mantis refused to attack anything bigger than a blue bottle or small moth, but would venture down to the soil level to take centipedes and devils coach houses.

since this one reached adult one of the smaller ones has actually walked over its back and climbed up onto a higher vine, no response from the adult at all, let alone "i wanna eat your brains" attitude.

my thoughts on these mantis:

great! beautiful to look at through all their stages, very easy to handle but do tend to go oooh bugger im dead and drop off where they hang if you try and grab them, only to do a somersault and land on something else!

good hunters (more so than I was advised) they actively saught out their prey reguarly and seemed to thrive (though 2 did get skinny once and were fed individually), mostly very chilled out and sit abouty type of mantis though, seemed to not need much food!

communal. never tried to kill each other too much, caught two of the larger ones displaying to the smaller, which promptly jumped off the vines into the ferns below and were only stalked once but one that was caught was dropped without being bitten or hurt (from what I saw)

temp? 20 - 30o C no problems there so far!

Humidity? 50 - 100 % no problems (millipedes ate all the mould apart from a little)

great hardy little buggers, converted everyone into my house from hating insects to loving them, even got handled by an insectiphobic with no squeals!

hopefully will have some oothcae if things work out but also hoping to get some into london zoo if I can persuade them to let them loose in the butterfly house!

despite my experience with this species so far I would say always listen to your supplier and take their advice, they dont breed them with no experience!

many thanks to all who have advised and listened to this lot of waffle


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## Rick (Jul 16, 2007)

That's a male. See the male or female thread at the top of this forum.


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## captainmerkin (Jul 16, 2007)

> That's a male. See the male or female thread at the top of this forum.


good thread, closer look tomorrow but at a glance its a male!


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## Rick (Jul 16, 2007)

In some species like ghost mantids the "shield" on the back looks different in males.


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## yen_saw (Jul 17, 2007)

> which is the "horn" and where should I be looking for the diamond shape?


Sorry i am not sure what is the proper word besides "horn", it is the "thing" that protruding out from the head (besides antenna). Female has a thicker "horn" than male, female will also has wider shield, more like a triangle shape shield. Your female should also moult into adult soon. Following are two adult female pics.











Notice the wider shield and thicker "horn"


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## captainmerkin (Jul 17, 2007)

cant see the pics from work will havea look later.

Hopefully females will shed shortly so I can compare them, but know what you mean from the description!

still cant picture these taking on a cricket however lol


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## Rick (Jul 17, 2007)

> cant see the pics from work will havea look later.Hopefully females will shed shortly so I can compare them, but know what you mean from the description!
> 
> still cant picture these taking on a cricket however lol


These seem to take forever to molt. I have one male that's been adult for awhile but two others (one female) that don't even look ready yet.


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## captainmerkin (Jul 18, 2007)

> > cant see the pics from work will havea look later.Hopefully females will shed shortly so I can compare them, but know what you mean from the description!
> >
> > still cant picture these taking on a cricket however lol
> 
> ...


I was not expecting these to do so just yet either but they took me by suprise, it tried to go for a little fly yesterday.... my conclusions on that are: not very cordinated.... little bugger was like a helecopter with 1 rotor.


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## albedoa (Feb 26, 2008)

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I have a quick question not worth its own.  Should I be able to tell the sex of my ghosts at L4? Two have very defines triangular shields and are larger than the third, who has a nubby diamond shield. Is it safe to say I have two females and a male?


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## macro junkie (Feb 26, 2008)

Rick said:


> These seem to take forever to molt. I have one male that's been adult for awhile but two others (one female) that don't even look ready yet.


your telling me..its funny how fast the flowermantids shed compared to these ghost mantids..i got them at L4 there now sub adult and its seemed like its taken for ever to get here..


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## Mantida (Feb 26, 2008)

albedoa said:


> Sorry to bump an old thread, but I have a quick question not worth its own.  Should I be able to tell the sex of my ghosts at L4? Two have very defines triangular shields and are larger than the third, who has a nubby diamond shield. Is it safe to say I have two females and a male?


You should be able to easily sex them at that stage. I think it's safe to say that you have 2 fems and a male. You should be able to tell by the "horn" more than anything and also the antennae. The male have really long, thick ones, if you compare to Yen and captainmerkin's pictures.


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## Kruszakus (Feb 27, 2008)

Is it true that this species is quite reluctant when it comes to mating?


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