# Hello from Pennsylvania!



## JoeCapricorn (Nov 4, 2009)

Hey, I'm Joe. I love bugs and animals and I've been keeping wild caught Chinese mantises for a few months now (along with one wild caught European mantis).

I also have four Sphodromantis centralis babies that I just received today. They are the sweetest little creatures and three are L2, one is probably L1. Currently I only have one Chinese mantis, her name is Amber and she has been my buddy for a while now. The names of my four babies are Angel, Fortune, Meek and Kit. I gave them androgynous names because they are too small for me to truly tell their gender and count their abdominal segments. The 6 &amp; 8 rule applies to S. centralis, right?

As for other pets, I have a domestic pet-store cricket as a pet named Berkshire. I keep her separate from the feeder crickets and I merely want to see how long I can keep one of these creatures alive. I also have a disabled monarch butterfly named Valentine, I found her missing a forewing and the other forewing fell off soon after. I've kept her on a diet of Vitamin water and she is still going strong ^_^ 

Throughout my life, my favorite insect has been Melanoplus Differentialis. The season is effectively over for these creatures, I still see them now and then and I keep them as pets as well on occasion, but this year I transported a bunch of them from various places to a designated grasshopper garden in an effort to repopulate my yard with these beautiful hoppers. Back in 2001-2002, I kept a runt M. differentialis (she was smaller than a normal female and had misshaped wings) all the way until February of 2002. Before that, I had a grasshopper that lived through till Christmas and I wrote a note to Santa Claus to leave a treat for my pet hopper. Christmas morning brought her a small piece of carrot ^_^ - I think she made it until New Years Eve, but not much longer.

I also like computers and computer games, I do have a Wii but no other 'modern' game system. My favorite game is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I am addicted to this game similar to how some people get addicted to World of Warcraft, only playtime is free and unlimited, without any risk of getting banned or running into stupid people. Also Doom II, because it is an epic classic that will never grow old and pretty much any nostalgic 90s DOS game.

I also admit that I rarely play PC games anymore without an insect wandering around on my desk - of course not the baby Sphodromantises, but Amber and Valentine are tame enough to sit still (although sometimes Valentine gets a bit fluttery). If they aren't tame enough, at least they'll be in their cage on my desk and I can watch them.

Oh! And... and and, I like dragons! I also like mammals... I like furry things and furry dragons! And being hyper! I also like hyper furry dragons.

And Kit, one of the baby Sphodros, likes to follow my mouse cursor. *giggles*


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## ismart (Nov 4, 2009)

Welcome to the forum!


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## mantidsaresweet (Nov 4, 2009)

Welcome!


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## revmdn (Nov 4, 2009)

Welcome.


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## Rick (Nov 4, 2009)

Welcome


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## sbugir (Nov 4, 2009)

Yes Doom 2 is a classic. Oblivion is one of my favorite by Bethesda, after Morrowind of course.

BTW,

Welcome


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## hibiscusmile (Nov 4, 2009)

Hi Joe and welcome from OHIO! u sound like u are really a fun person, I hope u enjoy your time with us, I made myself play a game of spider solitare today while I had some soup for lunch, I say made myself, because I never take time to do anything other than work and it was fun!


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## Peter Clausen (Nov 5, 2009)

Welcome, Joe! You really have a lot of compassion for bugs. Amazing to hear about the monarch being alive still!

Where's Rick to tell us what he thinks when he sees a grasshopper? I do wonder if any of your garden hoppers will be (briefly) sharing a cage with a Sphodromantis this coming summer!


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## Katnapper (Nov 5, 2009)

Hi there, Joe! Welcome to the forum... glad to have you here.  Sounds like you've got a lot of little critters to keep you busy. It's nice you've joined and are getting into the mantis hobby maybe.  Again welcome!


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## Rick (Nov 5, 2009)

Peter said:


> Welcome, Joe! You really have a lot of compassion for bugs. Amazing to hear about the monarch being alive still! Where's Rick to tell us what he thinks when he sees a grasshopper? I do wonder if any of your garden hoppers will be (briefly) sharing a cage with a Sphodromantis this coming summer!


Grasshoppers=mantis food. Nasty little things they are.


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## JoeCapricorn (Nov 7, 2009)

Meek finally molted and is now all caught up with the rest of my babies. I think they are all now L2.


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