# some pics from Houston museum of science



## yen_saw

Went for Houston museum of science for easter today, manage to take some pics including D. desiccata and Hierodula Stalli in the insect zoo.


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## MicroMantis

beautiful, breathtaking, funny frog. I have to get there soon. I haven't been there in a while.

WAIT, notice anything strange about the sheild mantis?


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## Andrew

In the 5th pic, that isnt a hierodula. Thats a Taumantis Sigiana.

Thanks,

Andrew


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## yen_saw

That's a dead leaf mantis James. A male dead leaf and was hanging close to one of the two oothecae in the cage. The label named the 5th pic mantids as Hierodula Stalli, they could be wrong though Andrew, there were many nymphs hatched from two oothecae, i was tempted to open the cage and sneak out few oothecae :twisted:


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## Andrew

Heck, I probably would have. Just take an ootheca and leave a $20.00 bill in the cage. Im sure they wont mind. Lol, J/K. :lol: 

Thanks,

Andrew


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## Andrew

Im 99.9% sure that that is a T. Sigiana. Look at the terra-typica database entry for this species: http://ttwebbase.dyndns.org/mantid/view/195.html

Thanks,

Andrew


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## yen_saw

Hey Andrew, you are right!!  It is 100% T. Sigiana because the ootheca in the museum look exactly the same, they are many nymphs in the cage too, will let them know if they will give me free nymphs or ootheca for free, i will share them with you Andrew :wink:


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## Ian

Andrew, you got there before me! It is definately a taumantis, I had a small culture of those going, of which an ooth I traded with you I think andrew??? You can tell by the promonant light green oval shaped ooth, a lovely spp.

Cheers,

Ian


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## Jesse

That dead-leaf is not D. desiccata, I think it may be Deroplatys horrificata! Do they have people working at the museum that know how to care and breed these mantids? Or did they just import wildcaught specimens and stick them in a cage?


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## Andrew

How can you tell that its D. Horrificata? Because of the ootheca?

Thanks,

Andrew


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## Andrew

> Andrew, you got there before me! It is definately a taumantis, I had a small culture of those going, of which an ooth I traded with you I think andrew??? You can tell by the promonant light green oval shaped ooth, a lovely spp.Cheers,
> 
> Ian


Yeah, I traded an S. Limbata ooth to you for it, but it never hatched. Are you still keeping this species?

Thanks,

Andrew


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## yen_saw

Jesse, that is a big museum here and there is an insect zoo manager. It was labelled as D. Desiccata but you are right looks like DH instead. I need to let them know about this it's very misleading. I am not sure if they are wild caught or CB, but they were import from other countries and they have many different types of mantids i remember seeing some orchid mantis there, huge one with oothecae. The mantids section may have been neglected because there are many newly hatched nymphs of T. Sigiana together with the mother so they will be eaten by the mom i'm sure and also the mis-labelling. There is another container labelled as european mantids but it doesn't look like one for me (I didn't take the pic).


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## Jesse

I can't tell for sure, its just an educated guess. It may even be D. lobata, but it looks too large to be a lobata.


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## Chris Dickie

nice pics

the frog is a waxy monkey tree frog - phyllomedusa sp (may have spelt that wrong)


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## Joe

And thats not a male, thats a female D. horrificata.. just insuring

Joe


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## Orin

The mantis in the picture is a female Deroplatys lobata

I recently was tricked too by D.lobata labeled with the misnomer D. horrificata, there is no such species. I labeled my pics, checked the scientific literature (pronotum drawings) and said oops, D.lobata. The zoos buy them from a Malaysian insect "farm" that labels them differently each time.

There are only 3 Deroplatys species:

D.truncata

D.desiccata

D.lobata


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## Jesse

Thanks for the clarification Orin. And nice photos Yen Saw.


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## yen_saw

Orin, there is species name Deroplatys horificata/ D. anguscata. The butterfly farm in Penang island (Malaysia) is breeding them. The attached link also provide reserch report about rare mantis in Malaysia including yellow flower mantis.

http://www.butterfly-insect.com/butterfly-...ct/r&amp;b.html

Well i could be wrong! if that's the case the breeding center is wrong too :!: :?:


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## Ian

Arrr, Yen, the home of the yellow flower mantis!

Cheers,

Ian


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## Orin

> Orin, there is species name Deroplatys horificata/ D. anguscata. The butterfly farm in Penang island (Malaysia) is breeding them. The attached link also provide reserch report about rare mantis in Malaysia including yellow flower mantis.http://www.butterfly-insect.com/butterfly-...ct/r&amp;b.html
> 
> Well i could be wrong! if that's the case the breeding center is wrong too :!: :?:


Yes, the 'breeding' center is wrong.

That they have misidentified their animlas isn't so strange but what is really odd is they send one batch of lobata labeled horrificata and another batch of the same animals (both are from the same exact supplier) labeled desiccata.


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## Orin

P.S. I'll bet you $500.


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## yen_saw

Thanks for the clarification. I trust you :wink:

So D. horrificata is not another name for D. Lobata.


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## Orin

Just like big foot, there's no proof he doesn't exist, just no proof that he does. Here's all I can tell you for sure:

1. The 3 species have very specific and identifiable pronotum shapes that are well-documented.

2. The ones sold by that place as horrificata are lobata.


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## Chris Dickie

i thought the yellow flower mantis was theoprobus elegans (think thats how you spell it)

this is why I really don't like common names, lol


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## yen_saw

I think the scientific name is Parhymenopus Davidsoni, i was not aware that there is another kind of yellow flower mantis but that could just be my lack of knowledge in mantis name.


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## DMJ

Cuddle Fish are cool. I use to mess with them at Sea World when I use to work there. Nice pics would love to visit that place.


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## Ian

Yeah, thats the name yen. Managed to get in contact with them? Graham is emailing them, saying he is some biological something or other, which, techincally he is, and asking them if they can ship him over a few....lets hope they do!

Cheers,

Ian


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## Chris Dickie

Ive never got prices from this company in particular but people I have contacted before in Malaysia and they have been exteremely pricey e.g. $50 per Orchid Mantis

Also I do know of places in the UK buying Malaysian insects from this company but they had to buy pupae at the same time as they were told collecting insects alone was not worth enough money.

Be interesting to hear what they say to Graham.


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## Ian

Yeah, though they would be horrendous prices. Well, I am sure Graham can ween his way around them, he did it in customs, lol!

Cheers,

Ian


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