# The beast (at last!!!)



## Devils flower

This morning, finally..., I was looking at an adult Idolomantis diabolica male (MY Idolomantis diabolica  ). It took him 66 days before he finally decided to shed :shock:

He is awesome, the greatest mantis specimen I have ever seen, huge (definitely over 12 cm/4,8 inch) 8) and hopefully the father of lots of little devils flowers...

I'm simply ecstatic :shock: :shock: and couldn't wait to take some pictures:

















Some older pictures:

subadult Idolo male (watch the thick antennae :? )









subadult Idolo female (with slender antennae :lol: )






edit: translated the whole message :wink:


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## Ian

Fantastic! Now all you need is a female


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## KennethJ78

He allready has a female... subadult female... the bottom pic is her to be exact..

He forgot to translate "vrouw" into "female"  

Excellent pics and can't wait for him to submit pics of the female when she has finally become an adult.

Good work Steven :wink:


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## Ian

Ohhhhhhhh yeah!! Keep us updated with how the pair go  And..of coruse...a successful mating!


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## nympho

Nice mantis! He's perfect.

Quite an acheivement getting these through to adult.

So has it turned green yet or is it staying brown as it matures? I was under the impression adults were always green. Thats probably because the first pics I saw of these mantids on a website showed brown nymphs and then pics of green adults and i've never seen green nymphs. Also I read something about them maturing during the 'rainy season' when presumably the leaves on trees start to grow and green is better.

A stupid question but is the measurement of 12cm to the wing tips or end of his abdomen. Reason I ask is mine is subadult (thick antenae) but is only around 6cm and I can't imagine it will double in size. I suppose they do vary quite alot as do some other mantids.

Do you think the female one is going to be even bigger? I look forward to more pics.

And good luck with breeding them.


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## Exotic-Mantis

Yeah, definately. Let us know how it goes. He looks really nice!

Thanks,

Eros


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## Devils flower

> He forgot to translate "vrouw" into "female"


Oops, I changed that  



> So has it turned green yet or is it staying brown as it maturesA stupid question but is the measurement of 12cm to the wing tips or end of his abdomen. Reason I ask is mine is subadult (thick antenae) but is only around 6cm and I can't imagine it will double in size. I suppose they do vary quite alot as do some other mantids.


 He didn't turn green yet, simply because he moulted this morning. I was told however that he should turn green/purple in the next few weeks, so I just have to wait...

About the size: it's 12 cm from the top of the head to the top of the wings. Without wings he is something of 10 cm.. The female should be considerably larger (14 cm), we'll just have to see that. That is if she matures, because her eyes have darkened a lot a couple of weeks ago and I am a bit worried


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## Lee2k4

I really would love one of these species but Ian does not appear to have any in :wink:


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## Ian

Have some ooths coming soon if you would like to reserve any, or, just wait for the nymphs!


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## ellroy

Well done mate....my male is 63 days and still feeding. My female is doing really well and at about 50 days.

I see you have straw attached to the roof of the cage, any other branches in there? Any other tips for a successful moult? I've got mine in a mesh cage and I'm spraying the cage daily,

thanks

Alan


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## Lee2k4

Got an ETA of when you will will get them in Ian? I am after some nymphs so I can't wait till you get them in.


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## Devils flower

@ellroy: just the straw, no other branches so that they are obliged to hang from the ceiling. I completely shielded the cage to minimize stress.

About the humidity, they stand in my aquariumroom so the humidity is already high. On the bottom of the cage I have plastic with lots of toilet paper on which is constantly soaking wet (when they are about to mould) :wink:

Good luck with yours!


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## nympho

> On the bottom of the cage I have plastic with lots of toilet paper on which is constantly soaking wet (when they are about to mould)


I use soggy bog roll too. seems to work well, although it doesnt look too pretty covered in mantis poo and fly wings. I take it you mean moult. :wink:


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## Christian

Hi.

The (more realistic) sizes are: male 8-9 cm from head to tip of abdomen, female 10,5 cm from head to abdomen. The wings surpass the abdomen by 1,5 (F) to 2 cm (M). Still large enough, I think.

The adults become green in 1-2 weeks. We had never brown adults and never green larvae. The larvae may be brown, ochraceous, yellowish, grey, reddish or even blackish. But never green.

Regards,

Christian


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## francisco

Hello Devils flower,

The male will take like 3-4 days before it gets his coloration, you are going to love it.

regards

FT


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## Devils flower

@Christian: I really think my male is 10 cm, I'll measure him this week (he probably is this big because I gave him everything he wanted: excellent food, environment, TLC, ... :wink: ).

I should say though that I have another subadult male which is considerably smaller than my adult male when he was that age...

@Francisco: I am already loving it (now 3 days later), he's starting to get greener and greener :twisted:

Cheerz,

Steven


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## ellroy

At last!!! My female has made it to adulthood!!! Even though I hadn't got round to rigging up any straw it was a successful moult, can't believe how big she is!!!

Will try to get some pics this week....fingers crossed for the male now!

Alan


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## Devils flower

Awesome Alan!!!

Congrats and good luck with your male :wink:

My female didn't make it however (the one with the black eyes), so my male is horny as heck... Pitty you don't live a bit closer.

ps: I have another sub couple, so I'm -literally- putting all my money on these :twisted:


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## ellroy

Sorry to hear about your female Steven but I'm sure what you've learnt will go a long way to a successful second pair.

Can't wait for her to turn green!

Ironically, my adult female C.gemmatus died today.....she turned adult in october so I guess it was old age. Only the Idolo's left now so they will have all my attention.

Certainly a shame we are not close enough for a breeding loan.....I know of someone who was looking for adults for breeding but he was not interested in a loan only buying the adults.....nevermind!

Must get the male fattened up now.....had a bit of a fly shortage but he seems quite fond of maggots, plus its warm enough to catch stuff outside now.....he tucked into a juicy hoverfly earlier!

Cheers

Alan


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## Ian

Congrats alan! Lets hope your male will make it for breeding...and then think of all the nymphs!


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## ellroy

Ok....tried taking some pics but as you can see she wasn't really up for it!! They have all been relatively calm for previous photo shoots so not sure if the adults are just more jumpy. I'm sure she was making some kind of clicking/hissing noise....perhaps by rubbing her wings together??












May try some more pics when she's more settled. You can see she is already starting to turn green,

Alan


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## Ian

Awesome photos alan! You can always trust an idolo to pose for the cam  

Best of luck with them.


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## Devils flower

I wouldn' bother them too much, after all it's Idolomantis/Extremely Stressy.

Great mantis though, keep up the good work!


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## Executor of Fruit Flies

Frikkin' amazing threat display. And they "hiss" too? I so want one(or ten).


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## ellroy

Its been touch and go all day after finding my subadult male shedding this morning, he ended up hanging by his front legs when I left for uni but by the time I got back he is hanging from his 4 hind legs. He doesn't seem quite as strong as the female but I count myself lucky that I have an adult male and adult female within the space of a week. Don't want to count my chickens but needless to say breeding will be the ultimate aim!!

Will get more pics soon,

Alan


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## Ian

Awesome Alan!!! I think you are one of the few people with a captive bred adult pair...fantastic


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## ellroy

Again this isn't a great pic I'm afraid as I haven't had time to set it up properly but this is the adult male feeding





Note the thick antennae,

Alan


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## Devils flower

I went to check my Idolos this morning, disaster...

After getting my (second!!) male to adulthood I found my female -who was about to moult this or next week- laying on the floor of her cage.

Same old story: those f***ing hanging problems.

I'll put her to sleep, since she is too exhausted to get through one last moult..

As some of you know I am keeping them in mesh/stray cages, but obviously this is'nt enough to keep the females healthy.

That's why again I ask this question (for my next try...): Do they need plants to hang from, what type of mesh, etcetera... ? What about the humidity?

It is so frustrating since my males become adult without any notable problems and with the females it just doesn't work


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## ellroy

My two sucessful adult moults have occured in a bare, fine mesh cage with no branches or plants, unsuccessful ones occured when there were branches etc but I'm not convinced that was the reason for failiure.

I wish I had more insight but I think I've just been lucky!

Good luck with the next batch,

Alan


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## worldofmantis

In my opinion if you try to match what they would do in the wild perfectly where they would hang to moult and all thigns might go ebtter. I dont really know but its jstu what i expect scince there adapted to live in the wild


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## julian camilo

> In my opinion if you try to match what they would do in the wild perfectly where they would hang to moult and all thigns might go ebtter. I dont really know but its jstu what i expect scince there adapted to live in the wild


i dont mean to be rude, but this seems like quite an ignorant thing to say unless you have kept the species yourself. i have not. however, some people have had success with quite the opposite (ie. a bare mesh cage). of course they are adapted to live in the wild, which insect isnt?


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## DrM

OMF'n GODDESS!.......Ive never seen one of those home grown and so beautiful!....Great JOB!! :lol:


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