# Freaky mantids



## Morpheus uk (Jan 26, 2008)

Found these amazing wierdies

http://74.6.146.244/babelfish/translate_ur...category%2f1186

http://74.6.146.244/babelfish/translate_ur...category%2f1179

http://74.6.146.244/babelfish/translate_ur...category%2f1188

http://74.6.146.244/babelfish/translate_ur...category%2f1181


----------



## Kruszakus (Jan 26, 2008)

Yeah, I've seen these before.

Pictures like that give me a small glimpse of hope, that we won't be stuck with the same species forever.


----------



## Borya (Jan 26, 2008)

Nice pics!

Thank you!


----------



## Rob Byatt (Jan 31, 2008)

May get some _Parhymenopus_ later this year, but I thought that last year too :angry:


----------



## Morpheus uk (Feb 18, 2008)

Found some more

http://74.6.146.244/babelfish/translate_ur...category%2f1192

New Deroplatys sp ive never seen before, looks like lobata

Super boxer mantis lol

http://74.6.146.244/babelfish/translate_ur...category%2f1191


----------



## Birdfly (Feb 18, 2008)

The variation amongst mantids has to be the greatest of all insects? which is nice.

Mother nature, i love this hobby


----------



## Christian (Feb 18, 2008)

The _Deroplatys_ species is called _D. trigonodera_. I have this species in stock for two years now (as seen in my signature) and it's one of the most difficult to breed mantids I ever had. But I was the first to breed it which isn't a bad thing either.


----------



## chun (Feb 18, 2008)

out of interest Christian, why is this species so difficult to care/breed?

cheers


----------



## robo mantis (Feb 18, 2008)

They seem like crossbreeds between different species.


----------



## Birdfly (Feb 18, 2008)

They arnt a cross breed as i'm sure you know  , there are a few _Deroplaty_ species, another one is _D horificata_, which i am yet to see, cant find a picture on the web at all! It sounds so interesting.

Typical : http://homepage3.nifty.com/mantis/img/horiBack.jpg i found one ! These seem fairly similar to _D lobata_ at a glance exept _D truncata_ &amp; _desiccata_  Are there many more types Christian?


----------



## tier (Feb 18, 2008)

_D. angustata_

D. desiccata

D. gorochovi

D. lobata

D. moultoni

D. phillipinica

D. rhombica

D. sarawaca

D. shelfordi

D. trigonodera

D. truncata

source: "Mantodea Gottesanbeterinnen der Welt" , Rheinhard Ehrmann, NTV-Verlag 2002

I think the picture in the post above is a D. lobata, looking like the females I kept.

By the way, most of you know this site:

http://www.insect-sale.com/de/shop/store.asp?Item=Mantidae

Please check out "Deroplatys sp. 2". What is this???

regards,

tier


----------



## Birdfly (Feb 18, 2008)

Cheers Tier, i'll go check that out  

Wow, check out that Deroplatys species 2 http://www.insect-sale.com/de/photo.asp?photo=Deroplatys-sp2 :blink: 

Quite a few mantis flies in there too.


----------



## Rob Byatt (Feb 18, 2008)

That isn't _Deroplatys_  But I can't think what it is


----------



## Christian (Feb 18, 2008)

Ha, the last species is a good one, isn't it?  

Actually, they don't belong to the genus _Deroplatys_ (as seen in the shape of the head, for instance), but to _Parablepharis_. There is only one species known a present, _P. kuhlii_. They really seem to be rather rare.

Regarding _Deroplatys_, I can offer some additional information. A recently described new species has to be added to the list, _Deroplatys indica_ from, well, India.  

The name _D. horrifica_ (not horrificata) is just a synonym of _D. angustata_. There was once a good photo of a female of this species on the net, but the site seems to have vanished. _D. angustata_ resembles _D. lobata_, but has slightly different shaped pronotum and wings. Although _lobata_ is highly variable, _angustata_ has some distinct features which allow to separate it from _lobata_.

_D. lobata_ and _D. rhombica_ may be the same species, this may apply also to _D. truncata_ and _D. shelfordi_.

_D. sarawaca_ is a spectacular species, one of my all-time favorites, you have never seen anything like this before. There exists no photo of this species, in fact there seem to have been almost no records since its description some 115 years ago. I searched for it twice, but without success. I found _D. trigonodera_ instead, which is almost a good...

The breeding turned out to be a challenge. Raising them is as easy as other species, but trying to pair them is frustrating. The males are only interested in female of a certain age, a certain silouette and only during a certain time of their life. I always keep dozens and dozens of adults only to have 2-3 females paired each generation. At moment I have 4 very large terraria filled up with females just two of which have copulated. I have one male left in this generation, when he also dies I will suddenly have 3 empty terraria... I have to buy more ethanol...






It's in every generation the same, I never know if it wasn't the last. Comparing to these ones, _D. lobata_ is a beginner species.


----------



## tier (Feb 18, 2008)

Thanks a lot


----------



## Rob Byatt (Feb 19, 2008)

Damn you Christian, as soon as I got off this computer I remembered no _Deroplatys_ have head projections :angry:  

_P. kuhlii_ is African isn't it ? From which country/region ?

Good luck with the _D. trigonondera_


----------



## Morpheus uk (Feb 19, 2008)

OMG I MUST HAVE THAT MANTIS WHAT EVER THE heck THAT THING IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Birdfly (Feb 19, 2008)

Cheers Christian, Rob, I must have spelt _D. horrifica_ four or five different ways before i finally copied and pasted it &lt;_&lt; .

Still that _Parablepharis kuhlii_ is a stunner, i wonder how much of its rareity is down to its amazing camouflage, i would like to think that was it but what with habitat destruction and pollution who knows.

_Deroplatys_ dont have head ornaments, nice one guys  

_D truncata_ were quite? common 20 years ago, i had a few but couldnt get them to notice one another let alone pair up.

Males were also hard to get hold of, i understand now that they too are incredably tricky.

_D sarawaca_ interesting, i presume they are from Sarawak, Borneo?


----------



## Christian (Feb 19, 2008)

_P. kuhlii_ is an SE Asian one. It occurs approximatively in the same regions as _Deroplatys_, but is much less frequent found in the collections of the dry insect sellers. You can estimate the abundance (or maybe the conspicuousness to the observer) of a certain species by the amount (and hence the price) of dried specimens offered. And by checking museum collections. Females are really rare, males are attracted to light as in other species and found frequently.

Thus, _D. lobata_ is rather abundant in W Malaysia, much more abundant than _desiccata_, which is by far the most widespread _Deroplatys_ in the hobby. This is because they are easy to breed. _lobata_ was absent from the hobby for almost ten years, but has become common in the last few years. _truncata_ and _trigonodera_ are rare in W-Malaysia. The last one is more a Bornean species. However, please don't get the wrong impression: all _Deroplatys _are rare in the wild. Some are just even rarer...

I found three species so far, unfortunately just one _truncata_ larva, so no breeding attempt could be started. Previous experiences show that they are rather hard to breed, maybe comparable to _trigonodera_.

I found an old (as far as I know *the only* one ever existing) drawing of _D. sarawaca_ on the net. I am somewhat concerned about the conservation status of this species. There was no locus typicus except Sarawak given for the species with the original description so I cannot assume the degree of habitat destruction.

http://books.google.com/books?id=i4r0GiPPp...FdXwo#PPA243,M1

Go to page 243.


----------



## yen_saw (Feb 19, 2008)

Now that's one freaky dead leaf mantis!! and what a pleasant surprise the pdf file is in english  (i was expecting German really coming from Christian  ) Thanks for the link! Sarawak is a nice place, but the habitat has not been conserved properly. Years ago, Malaysia decided to build a huge dam (Bakun project) in Sarawak, they cut down lot of trees for the access road. The developer make all the money (and obviously the government too) selling those huge logs but at the end the project went kabut! HOwever, Sarawak is the largest state in Malaysia and still plenty of virgin land yet to explore. Hopefully this species (_D. sarawaca_) can resurface in the future.


----------



## Christian (Feb 19, 2008)

Well, the habitat losses because of that lake are almost nothing comparing to the damage caused by timber companies. E Malaysia still has large amounts of virgin forest, but large parts of the state are, or were, explored for timber already. The access trails to every logged tree are the real damage, not even the felled tree itself. The long-term prediction for Borneo is that just about 50% of the primary forest will remain in about 20 yrs, mostly in the Central regions (S Sarawak, S Sabah, Brunei &amp; N Kalimantan). There is much more left today, but the Malaysian government practically degraded the Eastern states to timber and oil palm sources. The parts adjacent to the coast are already heavily degraded. The problem arises for local endemites: if a species occurs just in a small region and this region happens to lay in a heavily inhabited area, the species my well go extinct. Mantids usually have rather large distributional areas, even an area as, say, N Borneo is still large enough to sustain a species. But there may well be exceptions. The point is, as it is not really known where _D. sarawaca_ really was from, the actual status cannot be assessed. It is difficult enough to find species which are known to occur in an area, how does anyone want to find one without proper knowledge of its actual distribution? I remember seeing one in a collection once, but I cannot remember what was written on the label. I don't even know if I really saw one or just *think* I saw one.  I think I'm getting old... :huh: I will have to check more collections when I happen to be in the respective town. However, I already studied some collections and never saw a specimen again.


----------



## robo mantis (Feb 19, 2008)

I know i meant they look like crossbreeds.


----------



## mantisguy101 (Feb 20, 2008)

oh my goodness. i love the third one, though all of them are incredible


----------

