Help for my cousin?

[Allthingsterrarium]

What's up guys? My cousin and I went to a local reptile expo today (I got a new poison dart frog by the way. Totally awesome!) and we bought a young mantis for my other cousin. She has a lot of questions about her knew mantis and I actually gave her a link to this forum so she might just join and ask similar questions but for now we could use a little help as this is a species that we have found very, very little information online about and we weren't given any form of care sheet. They did tell us some basic things though and more or less it seems similar to the care of other species and as I have my giant Asian mantis, Lee, I should be able to answer some of her questions but we would love some more insight from anybody with experience here. It's called an Aurora mantis which is probably sphodromantis aurea but definitely something in the sphodromantis genus. All we know so far is they live in west Africa in Liberia and Ghana. Does anybody know anything about them and proper care? Any tips, guidelines or explanations anybody can offer would be greatly appreciated and a huge help. I look forward to hearing anything. Thanks so much!

 

[River Dane]

As far as I’m aware, no species has the common name aurora mantis, so you probably do have S. aurea, but if you could upload pics that will definitely help with identification. 

I have no personal experience with this genus, but this guide from keepingexoticpets.com talks about some basic Sphodromantis care.

I believe @Synapze and @Predatorhousepet have experience with S. aurea, so I’ll let them take the stage now.

 

[Jessie]

rasies hand i have one.

 

[Jessie]

DO you happen to live in wisconsin i think i know what expo your talking about.

 

[Synapze]

Another great source for info. ? If she follows the care guidelines for S. baccetti she'll do fine. It's a great starter species. 

https://www.keepinginsects.com/praying-mantis/species/sphodromantis-baccettii/. 

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

Another great source for info. ? If she follows the care guidelines for S. baccetti she'll do fine. It's a great starter species. 

https://www.keepinginsects.com/praying-mantis/species/sphodromantis-baccettii/. 

Excellent! Thanks Synapze! It will be a great help!

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

As far as I’m aware, no species has the common name aurora mantis, so you probably do have S. aurea, but if you could upload pics that will definitely help with identification. 

I have no personal experience with this genus, but this guide from keepingexoticpets.com talks about some basic Sphodromantis care.

I believe @Synapze and @Predatorhousepet have experience with S. aurea, so I’ll let them take the stage now.

Sure! Thanks River Dane! I'll ask my cousin to send a picture!

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

rasies hand i have one.

Awesome! Is care pretty much the same as most species?

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

As far as I’m aware, no species has the common name aurora mantis, so you probably do have S. aurea, but if you could upload pics that will definitely help with identification. 

I have no personal experience with this genus, but this guide from keepingexoticpets.com talks about some basic Sphodromantis care.

I believe @Synapze and @Predatorhousepet have experience with S. aurea, so I’ll let them take the stage now.

Here's a picture she sent me! It's a little blurry but she's sort of a rusty pink/reddish brown color. 

 

[Synapze]

Here's a picture she sent me! It's a little blurry but she's sort of a rusty pink/reddish brown color. 

I can say with 100% certainty that it's a mantis. ? You may need a better picture to get an accurate ID. 

 

[MantisGirl13]

 Lol. @Synapze I think we established that already! 

- MantisGirl13

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

I can say with 100% certainty that it's a mantis. ? You may need a better picture to get an accurate ID. 

True!  we can probably get a better picture one of these days but fortunately from the sound of it the mantis (whatever type it is) is doing well. She has a nice new setup and is active. Before we gave her to my cousin we even witnessed her take down a cricket like a dinosaur. 

 

[MantisGirl13]

 Good! I am glad it is doing well. Any clue if it is male or female?

- MantisGirl13

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

 Good! I am glad it is doing well. Any clue if it is male or female?

- MantisGirl13

Well, if I recall correctly from what I've heard, in many species males often have more than 6 abdominal segments and females have 6 or less. From what we could see at the time we counted 6 so I'd say there's a fair chance we have a female.

 

[MantisGirl13]

Nice! Females live longer than males, so that is a plus! Females have 6 segments on the bottom of their abdomen, while males have 8.

- MantisGirl13

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

Nice! Females live longer than males, so that is a plus! Females have 6 segments on the bottom of their abdomen, while males have 8.

- MantisGirl13

That's great! She'll definitely be happy to hear it. It's a shame with males though. It makes me think about my giant asian mantis Lee, who turned out to be male even though I initially thought female. I don't know how much longer he has. His final molt was in late July. He never has been active but he barely moves, his exoskeleton seems to be getting worn out and even though it may or may not be related, his eye spots cover most of his eyes now. I hope he still has a couple months though. It will be unfortunate to see him go. 

 

[Mantis Lady]

his eye spots cover most of his eyes now.

Can he still see? Do you handfeed him?

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

Can he still see? Do you handfeed him?

I think he can see fine given the way he looks at everything and knows when something is in front of him. He watches food but his appetite is slowing down though. Sometimes he'll take things from hand but it seems to depend on his mood. It's been a while that's for sure.

 

[Synapze]

Nature gave mantids 5 eyes, so he'll probably do just fine. He still sees you. ?