# Orchid Mantis (Hymenopus Coronatus)



## Jenn




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## OGIGA

Wonderful pictures!


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## monster

holy prettyness :shock:

is that little black &amp; red guy an orchid as well? reminds me of the headhunters on felix the cat: the movie :lol:


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## OGIGA

Yeah, orchids look like little devils when they hatch.


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## Way.Of.The.Mantis

Those things are beeeeautiful!! How many hatched?


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## Jenn

They look like that untill they molt. The ugly duckling to a swan...

It hatched out a little under 100. I have about 50 left...


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## Rick

Then they turn white and pink after the first molt.


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## Ben.M

Brill pics


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## monster

> Then they turn white and pink after the first molt.


crazy. so you have a black guy one day, white the next? nothing in between? wow, now that i would like to see!


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## Rick

> Then they turn white and pink after the first molt.
> 
> 
> 
> crazy. so you have a black guy one day, white the next? nothing in between? wow, now that i would like to see!
Click to expand...

When born they are black and red and once they molt they are white and pink.


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## wuwu

nice pics jenn! i might get some orchids again just to photograph them.


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## Jenn

Thank you... They are wonderful little posers.


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## jplelito

Not as good as Jenn's!

_Hymenopus coronatus_ females:









































Some are on _Forsythia_ flowers, others on a table on in their enclosures/feeding/etc.


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## Jenn

Great pictures! They really seem to enjoy having pictures taken.. You have some very pretty pink ones... It's crazy that some are so pink and others are white.


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## jplelito

Jenn,

Thanks! Orchid mantids often become pink if left exposed to one of two (or both) things: 1. red/purple/pink colors covering a large part of their view (I've done this before by wrapping red construction paper around their enclosure - but it doesn't always work as well for each mantid - some are better than others) or 2. really high humidity (I am talking 85-100% here) seems to bring out a natural, pale shade of pink in almost all of the females exposed to it. Male orchid mantids tend to be white, or if they do turn pink, it's usually at the subadult stage, and then they go white/brown when they molt to adult anyway. At least that has been my experience...


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## yen_saw

Very nice pics Jon. Glad to see the orchids are doing well for you. Very pink subadult female you got there :shock:


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## jplelito

Thanks Yen!

You've probably raised more orchids than anyone on the planet, so, do they ever stay pink as adults? All the pictures I've ever seen indicate a white colored adult mantid, for the most part, and the few I managed to grow to adulthood last year were all white as well.


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## yen_saw

Unfortunately no  i only see pink color adult female in first 10 minutes after molting. In most cases, they will turn into white color almost immediately after molting into adult. Probably it is the best way for them to camouflage well with the flower - with white and brown color - to avoid being an obvious target in the wild.


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## OGIGA

Great pictures. Mine is nowhere near that pink. In fact, she's pretty much all white as subadult.


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## yen_saw

Well i remember one of the adult orchid mantis from insect zoo in Houston museum has some pink color, she was kept at high humidity. Her pic can be seen in this link

http://www.hmns.org/eventDetail.asp?id=2&amp;a.../insect_zoo.asp



> It hatched out a little under 100. I have about 50 left...


Jenn.. that's pretty bad mortality rate. But you still have a good number to raise.


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## Jenn

oh, it wasn't do to mortality, I traded a bunch for some spiders and have given some to my friends. I have only seen 5 dead on the bottom of the house...


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## yen_saw

Ah sorry i was worry they might have been kept in the wrong conditions but doubt it since your set up looks fine. These second generation orchid nymphs are doing fine with me too


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## Bastenupence4

http://Natalie-Portman-anal-action.org/Win...ayer.php?movie=


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## Jenn

Some pictures of the nymphs... And my little girl.


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## specy

A molting sequence I took a couple of years ago




































And some of the h.coronatus I kept before


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## OGIGA

Wow, you are really good at this, specy!


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## Jenn

Very pink. Great pictures.


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## jplelito

Yen and the gang:

This is what you get if you keep orchids hot and give them a lot of humidity - 75-90% day and night!

There is still some variation, but no individual has come out all white yet.. all have varying degrees of pink on the legs and head/thorax/raptorial forelimbs. These have been adult for at least a week, with only a slight dimming of the pink color.
















The one in the lilac flower is particularly fiesty - she flew almost 10 feet from my hand to the bush while I was trying to take her pic - apparently they really appreciate it when it's 90 and sunny out!

I'll get more pics soon - another two females molted yesterday morning.


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## OGIGA

Wow, that's very pink! Mine is nowhere near!


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## yen_saw

Jon, thanks for the info!! Glad to see they are doing great, good job! Best wishes on breeding.


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## Monkey King

This thread has the best pics of orchids I have seen so far. Really awesome shots.


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## Jenn

some pictures of my lonley male Orchid. He is a sweet little bug. Very happy to hang out with me. I think. :roll:


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## spawn

Three shots of my L4? female I received from Yen today:


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## Asa

> some pictures of my lonley male Orchid. He is a sweet little bug. Very happy to hang out with me. I think. :roll:


Nice shade of caramel!


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## mantis55

Hello Some pictures of my Orchid





Shot at 2007-06-27

Stephan


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## Asa

That ooth is nice and straight  .


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## mantis55

Hello that is it. She built it this morning

Stephan


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## mystery

wow those look so sick when they are youngins. realy nice pics :twisted:


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## mantis55

Hello





Shot with KODAK Z730 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA at 2007-06-28

Stephan


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## Asa

Mantis 55, you must have thousands of pictures!


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## mantis55

Hello,jip 1003 pic"s :lol: :lol: 





Shot with KODAK Z730 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA at 2007-06-28





Shot with KODAK Z730 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA at 2007-06-28





Shot with KODAK Z730 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA at 2007-06-28

MFG Stephan


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## Asa

What does it have there in the last picture?


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## mantis55

Hallo auf Deutsch heißt das Mehlwurm (Tenebrio molitor)

:arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

Hello, in Germany flour worm (Tenebrio molitor)

Stephan


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## colddigger

flour worms look cool...caterpillar is it?

or beetle larva?


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## sufistic

Some photos of our H.Coronatus nymphs purchased from DeShawn about a month ago. Both of them molted twice already since being here. Sorry for the poor quality!


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## Asa

Big moth.


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## sufistic

Yeah Asa. She has a larger appetite than the other nymph. She'd actually hunt down her prey and not wait around like the other one. We've been feeding her huge moths, butterflies, flies, other common mantids, and honey!


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## Asa

> Yeah Asa. She has a larger appetite than the other nymph. She'd actually hunt down her prey and not wait around like the other one. We've been feeding her huge moths, butterflies, flies, other common mantids, and honey!


Why not keep the other common mantids?


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## sufistic

Well we had some common mantid nymphs which just hatched and didn't do too well (they were still alive though). So me and my brother decided to feed them to the Orchids.

It was heart-wrenching but we thought it was better to let the Orchids eat them rather than just let them die and throw them away.


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## Asa

Oh.


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## MikhailsDinos

This species of mantis looks good.... So good that I cannot take my eyes off them :lol: 

Beautiful pictures, everybody!


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## sufistic

More photos of the previous Orchids after molts!

1st Nymph
















2nd Nymph


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## khabirun

Updates..

My male is now an adult

Molted: 29th July

chillin...











My female is now a subadult

Molted: 31st July

here she is happily enjoying her cricket

she is totally white, no pink or purple coloration , guess its because of her surroundings, its all white


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## spawn

Your female looks the same instar as mine. What level is she? I want to know so I can time the males/females growth right.


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## khabirun

she's L7 (subadult stage) she got one more molt to go


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## yen_saw

Orchid female needs 8 moults to mature, so it is L9 by the time she matured. She looks like a subadult so she is L8 by now.


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## khabirun

> Orchid female needs 8 moults to mature, so it is L9 by the time she matured. She looks like a subadult so she is L8 by now.


oops, my bad :lol:


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## Jenn

Took some shots outside.


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## Asa

Blue shaded!


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## Ben.M

Amazing colour  it really is a poser :lol:


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## yen_saw

Fantastic eye color on the 2nd pic. Great job Jenn you always seems to capture the pic on the "right" moment.


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## Jenn

thank you.


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## Rob Byatt

I though I'd show you all what these lovely mantids look like when they are hatching.....






















And a few instars later .....


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## spawn

The pink is beautiful in the last one! Very nice pictures. Thanks for sharing.


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## OGIGA

Pretty awesome. Better than my pictures.


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## Kruszakus

There is something devilish, yet very seductive about this mantid. With the red-black combination it really looks like a devil, but then it changes into something more beautiful, and far more dangerous at the same time...

Man, can't wait until I get my hands on some hatchlings that my friend promised me!

P.S. Don't drop the male into the box with the female, put him on her back instead, she will be more submissive that way.


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## Morpheus uk

Hopefully i`ll be seeing exactly the same as Rob`s photos someday :lol:


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## MikhailsDinos

Beautiful Masdevallia! Do you keep orchid plants? I love keeping Masdevallia &amp; Dracula orchids. It's nice to place your orchid mantis with the orchid plants. Great pictures too!



Morpheus uk said:


> Hopefully i`ll be seeing exactly the same as Rob`s photos someday :lol:


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## Rob Byatt

MikhailsDinos said:


> Beautiful Masdevallia! Do you keep orchid plants? I love keeping Masdevallia &amp; Dracula orchids. It's nice to place your orchid mantis with the orchid plants. Great pictures too!


Yes I love orchids ! I have not had any _Masdevallia_ for some years - they are hard to come by in the UK (thankyou Hamm  )


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## joossa

The picture of the hatchlings is awesome! Alien invasion!


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## Kruszakus

One question - how long can I keep them together?

I keep five in each, relatively large container with some twigs and sticks - they seem to be comfortable in there. I dump many fruit flies and some aphids to provide a whole lot of food for them (they are only three days old, and some have realy swollen abdomens already).

but I know I cannot do this forever - when do you separate them?


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