# Hello from Sydney, Australia



## jameslongo (Mar 13, 2009)

Hello everyone at Mantidforum. I'm just a young lad from suburban Sydney &amp; i've been looking after mantids for about 9 months now. My girlfriend gave me the mantid collecting bug &amp; now my room is slowly being taken over by these interesting little buggers.

My collection so far consists of:

4x False Garden Mantids (Pseudomantis albofimbriata) (3 adult female/1 adult male)

2x Large Brown Mantids (Archimantis latistyla) (1 L4 female/1 subadult male)

2x Snake Mantids (Kongobatha diademata) (1 L3 female/1 L3 male)

1x Garden Mantid (Orthodera ministralis) (1 subadult female)

It's not a very pretty collection, all belonging to the Mantidae family, but i love them all the same. Unfortunately, due to my Australianess, i can't get the awesome flower mantids out there. "Quarantine matters, don't muck with it," as a certain late crocodile hunter once said. However, by the end of this year i'll see if i can't get my hands on a couple of Giant Rainforest Mantids from tropical Queensland.

It would be good to here from you. Are there any other Sydneysider collectors?

Cheers,

James.


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## Emile.Wilson (Mar 13, 2009)

Welcome from canada


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 13, 2009)

Hi James, sounds like u have a nice collection of babe there, do u have any pictures to post for us? I hope so, and welcome to the forum! from OHIO!


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## revmdn (Mar 13, 2009)

Welcome to the forum.


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## jameslongo (Mar 14, 2009)

Hello Hibiscusmile,

thankyou for the warm welcome. Unfortunately, if i tried to trade with you &amp; get caught by the luggage inspectors, i would attract a hefty fine &amp; spend a couple of years in prison.

Thanks anyway. I'd love to see some pics of your mantids though

James.


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## Emile.Wilson (Mar 14, 2009)

jameslongo said:


> Hello Hibiscusmile,thankyou for the warm welcome. Unfortunately, if i tried to trade with you &amp; get caught by the luggage inspectors, i would attract a hefty fine &amp; spend a couple of years in prison.
> 
> Thanks anyway. I'd love to see some pics of your mantids though
> 
> James.


Wow honestly time in jail?


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 14, 2009)

Hey James!

Welcome to the forum from Arizona! It must be very cool to be into mantids and to have a girlfriend who is keen on them, too! Those Giant RainForest mantids are pretty cool! I guess that they get up to 70mm.

You are right about the import ban, though, of course. I understand that both oz and NZ use CAT scanners on incoming mail nowadays.

We know very little about Australian mantids over here, so any pix and info that you can share with us will be particularly interesting.


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## jameslongo (Mar 14, 2009)

Well, for all of those interested, i will try to put up some pics of my collection from Down Under in the next few days hahaha (mind you, we don't really talk like that; at least not in Sydney).

Cheers,

James.


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## superfreak (Mar 14, 2009)

who is this young mysterious man?!

welcome


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## Rick (Mar 14, 2009)

Welcome.


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## bassist (Mar 14, 2009)

jameslongo said:


> Hello Hibiscusmile,thankyou for the warm welcome. Unfortunately, if i tried to trade with you &amp; get caught by the luggage inspectors, i would attract a hefty fine &amp; spend a couple of years in prison.
> 
> Thanks anyway. I'd love to see some pics of your mantids though
> 
> James.


That's why you mark it as fragile art work or a vase  

Welcome to the board.


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 14, 2009)

superfreak said:


> who is this young mysterious man?!welcome


Well, whoever he is, his current collection looks very much like yours (perhaps because you have such a limited number of native species?).  

Guess you won't have much to trade, though!


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## mikemercer (Mar 14, 2009)

i like bassit idea  lol

welcome


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 14, 2009)

mikemercer said:


> i like bassit idea  lolwelcome


Here we go again! The idea might sound great, but the devil is in the details.

Cost: I regularly send packages to Brisbane, a few hundred miles north of Sidney I recently sent a medium sized Priority box, with light, plastic stuff in it. It cost me $55. Last May, I sent a belated BD gift by Express, which only takes half as long. I used the smallest box available with contents that weighed a few ounces and it cost me $27.

Time: Express packages take a "guaranteed" time of five days (though they give you an addy to contact if it doesn't make it on time!) and Priority take twice that. If an ooth hatches in that time, it's going to be hard to explain the nymphs climbing out of the box (and you cant make it airtight) even without a scanner! Also, I understand that Express mail is more likely to be scanned carefully than Priority, for obvious reasons.

Getting away with it: If you declare that you are sending a vase, then you'd better send a vase! If you send a small, light box so marked, your parcel will go to the top of the scanning list. Even if it does contain a vase, modern scanners can detect biological material, and an ooth, particularly a large one, will look pretty obvious.

Finally, although an American sender is not likely to get into trouble if the material doesn't have a high intrinsic value, the Australian recipient will face fines which far exceed the cost of a whole slew of local mantids!

So, good luck!


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## ismart (Mar 14, 2009)

Welcome to the forum  .


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## robelgado (Mar 14, 2009)

welcome


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