# SA Acanthops



## Meemee

Here's a couple of pics of the one and only South American Acanthops that I managed to keep alive. She had her final shed today and is now an adult. I believe it's a female but I'm not entirely sure (it looks like she has 5 segments).

Hopefully I'll be able to get some more othecae and apply what I've learned from keeping this mantis. I really like this species and they don't seem to be as hard to keep as I once thought (high humidity, LOTS of food and that's about it).

Meemee


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## jandl2204

they are stunning...


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## Sheldon Johnson

Very pretty and well done for getting it this far.


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## wuwu

beautiful pics. is this species really that hard to keep? has anyone else kept this species before?


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## Christian

Is this the only one left? Without a male, nothing will hatch from the ooths.

I could identify the species, but only by looking at the specimen itself.

Regards,

Christian


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## 13ollox

christian i think she means she can get more ooths from someone else which will hatch . not her mantids ooths . well i think thats right , thats what i read .  

thats a great specimen, i would love to raise a few of them ! good work !

Neil


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## Ian

Thats a HOT mantis...nice work!


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## Meemee

Sorry for the confusion. Yes, I did mean that I'm hoping to get more ootheca from Ecuador (I know that mantis won't lay one that's fertile).

Thanks for the compliments everyone 'cuz I was feeling pretty bad about losing so many of the nymphs.

Meemee


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## AFK

wow, that is a VERY VERY VERY COOL looking mantis! i want one of those now!


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## jonpat83

I've been trying to find them but no-one anywhere seems to have them


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## Christian

I had several species of that genus in the past and bred one species for about 4 generations. I would take one ooth if you want, in case you get more than one. Depends on you.

Regards,

Christian


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## 13ollox

How big are they sizewise ? as they dont actually look that small in them photos ?

Neil


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## Christian

They are not very large. 3-6 cm long (body size only), depending on species. Size is not everything, however... :lol: 

Regards,

Christian


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## 13ollox

:lol: haha nice one christian , they look a nice species to keep one day . how hard is it to find ooths ?

Neil


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## Christian

Hi.

It's rather difficult. It may be easier to find a females which may lay some. At least, that's my experience.

Regards,

Christian


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## Meemee

I think it would be extremely hard to find the ooth in the wild 'cuz it looks a lot like a seed pod from a plant. I agree that it would be much easier to look for the mantis.

I can post a pic of the ooth if anyone wants to see it.

You're right Christian the mantis is quite small. In the second pic you can see that it's sitting on the ends of my fingers. The female that I got the ooth from was probably close to 6 cm but the one I have now is only 3 or 4 cm.

One thing that I noticed with this mantis is that when I move her container, when she's in it, she sways with the movement (just like a leaf - go figure!). Since I've only kept Chinese before I found this interesting.

Meemee


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## julian camilo

> The female that I got the ooth from was probably close to 6 cm but the one I have now is only 3 or 4 cm.


thats really interesting. im assuming the female you got the ootheca from was from the wild, whereas this one is captive reared. does this say something about captive reared food? or maybe other things? quite interesting to think about.


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## Meemee

I've thought about the difference in sizes too and I think it should be noted that I had a heck of a time getting the mantises food when they first hatched so there were many times they got just enough to get by. Perhaps this mantis is stunted and maybe many of them died as a result.

Meemee


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## Mike

u dont have a wingless fruit fly culture going for them?


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## jonpat83

I think this is the same species

http://www.mantisphotos.com/acanthops.htm

Have a close up look at the picture of the nymphs on the ootheca, it is the strangest thing :?:


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## Christian

Hi.

It should be another species than _A. falcata_. There are about 18 rather similar looking species in this genus, in Ecuador there occurr at least 4 species, namely _A. erosula, A. onorei, A. occidentalis_ and _A. royi_. They cannot be identified from a photo. The observed behaviour of freshly emerged larvae applies to all species of the genus.

Regards,

Christian


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## Meemee

I have no idea what species this is, I lucked out in getting the ooth when my husband (who works in the jungle in Ecuador) caught the female who laid it. Last year I hatched a couple of Chinese ooths but previous to that I had never even seen a live mantis (except on TV etc.). I consider myself totally unqualified but the opportunity presented itself so...

Mike, I wasn't really expecting the ooth to hatch, and I had read that it would take 8 to 10 weeks if it did. So I was totally caught off-guard when it hatched in just under 4, that's why I didn't have the fruit flies, they were on order at the pet store. I noticed that you're a fellow Canadian so I think you probably have some inkling of a prairie winter (aka - no fruit fly would survive shipping via the internet). I went to the uni here and basically beg, borrowed and stole any small insects I could get my hands on (I'll never be able to show my face again in the biology dept.  ).

My husband and his co-workers are diligently looking for mantises and ooths for me so hopefully I'll be able to get some more. Until then I'll try and learn as much from the care of this mantis as I can.

Meemee


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## Johnald Chaffinch

pics of a few different acanthops species:

http://ttwebbase.dyndns.org/mantid/list.html


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## mantisdeperu

Hi guys. Another Acanthops specie very soon in USA.

http://mantidforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php...light=acanthops

Keep in touch


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