Recent content by Mantid-Tim

Just wanted to note here. I had 4 wahlberghii. All were female. I got them at different times as well so the two pairs were each from different ooths. Three of the four died within a month of their adult molt almost exactly as you described. They each just got weak and went to the bottom of...

Can you rule out them going blind from eye rub and starving? How long did it take to die after they started showing symptoms? Otherwise that almost sounds like some kind of disease....

Freed up some space to upload the pics here... 

Its not that they are ruffled. Her wings are closed but her tegmina are fully open about 45-degrees to her thorax. It seems she physically can close them, but for some reason insists on keeping them fully open.  Has anyone even heard of this? (Also if you go to the reddit page and then click...

So I have been raising some European mantises. They are great friendly little gals for anyone who hasn't had the pleasure. Anyway I have two females. One subadult (Phi) and the other (Pi) just had her adult molt. She came out looking perfectly normal about a day after the molt when I checked on...

I am looking for anyone with Deroplatys (lobata, truncata, or desiccata will do; I assume those are really the only three species in that genus around, but if you have something else, let me know). I'm looking for four of them, in earlier instars, but if they are old enough to tell genders...

I've read that the Brunner's mantis (Brunneria borealis) is the only mantis species that is parthenogenetic. Also males of that species do not exist.

I have another sub-adult and am picking up two males this weekend! Her name is Delta. Her sister, Epsilon, is the smaller (calculus reference, lol).  Sorry about the poor quality photo, but the 16kB limit forced me to compress it up to the point of it being noticeably lossy.

Can she still catch prey on her own? If so, you don't have to worry that much. Mantids have a large range of vision from their compound eyes so even though they can't see past that spot, usually they can still see what's around them, and they can still catch prey, and thus it is survivable. If...

I just hatched a European mantis ooth. I know they are really common, but if someone wants a classic Mantis religiosa, let me know....  (Over 100 hatched and all seem very healthy. They are eating and strong.)

Then my assumption was correct that they are like membranacea then. They are known to die from too much humidity as well.

I found my D. lobata (male) the same way. He goes after flies, but is scared of other prey lol.

Definitely add Rhombodera to that list! Care is about the same as a Hierodula (majuscula; they like more humidity then membranaceas for instance) and they are great, friendly, aggressive, etc. mantids! That species is tied as my favorite along with the with the entire Sphodromantis genus (my...

I have an H. venosa and several R. megaera. (megaera are one of my favorite species. They are both great mantids, that I keep in 8x8x12 exo-terras. Their care is that of beginner mantids; megaera seem to like a bit more humidity (60-75%) and the venosa I had no idea so I treated it like a H...

Yeah my first two thoughts were it looks like a good setup, but then it looks a bit small. Remember the rule where the diameter is supposed to be twice the size of the mantis (doesn't look like that might be the case) and the height thrice the mantids length. I've always thought that rule was a...