Recent content by Christian

For those who manage to visit the Hamm exhibition. Creobroter urbanus L1-3 Odontomantis cf. planiceps L1, L4 Epaphrodita musarum L1-3, some medium-sized nymphs Phasmomantis sumichrasti L3-5 Stenopyga extera presubadults/subadults Metallyticus splendidus L1-3 I will be in RG on the right side.

Hi. The species people are dealing here with is very likely Haania confusa Saussure, 1871. The specimens are from W Malaysia and the pictures fit well to what I know from Borneo. I am currently working on a revision of the genus, and it turned out that there are several undescribed species, so...

Pokemon syndrome... :lol: that's good...

Naturalistic vivaria are used already in Europe for mantids (not for all, depending on species). Aside from legal issues, that is the reason why there are more difficult species in culture here. Deli-cups and the like are just not enough for some species.

There is really too much nonsense in this thread, although the latest posts seem to better assess the problem. Air pressure is not an issue as long as you don't want to breed mantids from the stratosphere. The reason why these species are found in the Cameron "Highlands" in Malaysia is that in...

There is more than one species (not variety) in this genus. It is a Sahel mantis, occurring in the scrub savanna belt south of Sahara. It was never bred before, so noone has infos on breeding. I suggest you keep it like Blepharopsis mendica, that is at around 30° C by day and room temps (15-20°)...

Should be Hestiasula phyllopus, the most common species of this genus in the area, but a certain uncertainty remains, as there is a similar species of which only males are known.

Not bad. Hymenopus is a good species for the public. But there are people who can be contacted for Idolomantis as well. What a pity that I don't breed mantids at moment, I could have supplied them with Idolomantis for 10 years to film...

Forget the colors, for God's sake. P. k. asiatica has the wider pronotum in both sexes.

In insects, normally the gender that invests more is the larger one. Usually it is the female for reasons outline above, but in species where males compete physically for females (e. g. stag and rhinoceros beetles), the males are larger. In mantids, the females are more sedentary and heavier...

That was Tenodera superstitiosa. Colors don't matter.

No Macromantis. This is a Stagmatoptera.

Hi. There are not many mantid species known from fossils, but the available data suggest that modern mantids did not appear in numbers before the Tertiary, although according to molecular data most groups were already present in the Cretaceous. This is a bit of a riddle. Since the best fossils...

I'd also like to think it's a minority, unfortunately my experience tells me it's more like "good average". Maybe I am too desillusionated with mankind, particularly as I spent enough time in the tropics to know that much of the species we are used to will not be around for our descendants to...

What do you guys always have with your "biggest", "longest", "heaviest", "rarest"? People are never happy with what they have. To those who are old enough I suggest to compare the list of species bred today (= IGM list) with the species bred about 10 years ago. There were incredible additions to...