# Red Arm African Mantis ??



## KennethJ78 (Nov 1, 2005)

Some people in here have this so-called Red Arm African Mantis.

If I'm not mistaken the scientific name for it is "Sphodromantis rubrastigmata" ?

Haven't seen pics on the internet yet, so I was wondering:

Do any of you breeders have pics of the "Red spot" ??

I have seen a few pics of this species from some of you guys, however.. the red spot on the tibia wasn't visible in all of these pics :?

Hope someone can help me and other curious mantiskeepers by showing the red spot.... Am very curious about it.

Regards, Kenneth


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## Ian (Nov 1, 2005)

yeah, I have a few pix, lemme just load em up. That right, rubrastigmata, was introduced into captivity by Graham Smith I think, pretty cute. I red them earlier last year, but did get any hatches on the ooths for some reason :?

Should be getting some more this month.

Cheers,

Ian


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## Ian (Nov 1, 2005)




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## Christian (Nov 1, 2005)

Hi.

I am not sure about the right identity of this species.

First: the name is not spelled correctly. There is a species called _Sphodromantis rubrostigma_, Werner, 1916, from Tanzania and Kenya.

But does this stock really belong to this species?

Who has determined them? From which country are they? And so on.

I am inclined to think the name was chosen aribitrarily from the list of _Sphodromantis_ by means of: which name fits it best?

If I receive some dead or moribund adult pairs, I may try to identify them. This may take a while as I will need some more literature if they are not from E Africa. And it may be really tricky, regarding the number of about 42 species/subsspecies known.

Regards,

Christian


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## Ian (Nov 1, 2005)

Ah right, I was told they are _rubrastigmata_ If you like, I can send you some live specimens. Have some coming next week, hopefully, from the man himself  

Cheers,

Ian


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## KennethJ78 (Nov 1, 2005)

Cute pics....

Call me a sceptic however: Still don't see "red" in those pics... I do see a black-ish dot on the inside of the middle pic's females tibia...

Was interested in the birghtness of the colour "red" in this species...


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## Ian (Nov 1, 2005)

It might be my cam...or the mode it was set on, but they are red if you look in real light. However, not all adult have them. Up untiil about L7, some loose the forearm spots, and some keep them. And this was happeneing within the same morph colour. I had some browns with and without spots, some greens with and without spots, and some beige with and without spots.

Was quite strange..

Cheers,

Ian


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## Jesse (Nov 1, 2005)

Just a comment: I have had (although not absolutely, positively identified!) _Sphodromantis lineola_ wildcaught individuals that had blue markings on the same area as the red areas on the individuals pictured. However none of the offspring had blue?

I would LOVE to see a key to the genus _Sphodromantis_!


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## Ian (Nov 1, 2005)

lol, I know, it seems there are os many species. I will have to give the link to a site I found early on in the week...a japanese site, with many different sub species of sphodromantis that I have NEVER heard of.

Cheers,

Ian


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## Macano (Nov 3, 2005)

I have two newly adult "red -arm" lineola's that I got from Yen as new nymphs in late spring/early summer. They had reddish arms as nymphs, but now the female is a very dark brown with reddish-brown arms. The male came out green with yellow on his arms. Go figure  I'll see if I can post pics when I get home later this week.


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