Recent content by Tomato

so...where's Pinky? :P

Well, Jesús has done his share of catch-up in the feeding department. He is longer and fatter than Madea by now and he's still munching. Madea has not eaten at all for the past day or so and the reason appears to be as I suspected...she is preparing to pupate! As I type she is scrunched up on an...

Hey guys, I found two critters that I thought would make for a fun winter project. I was mucking around in the yard harvesting the last of the summer's parsley when I found Jesús and Madea: Actually I have no idea as to the sex. They're both Eastern Black Swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes) and...

So it was, that last Friday morning, after feeding Sensei the Mantidfly a fat bluebottle, I left his jar outside with the lid partly open. We were leaving for a weekend trip up to Maine to catch some scenery and eat some lobsters and there'd be no one to feed Sensei for at least 4 or 5 days...

Jesskb- thanks! hibiscusmile- it's been almost a month and a half and he's still alive so I must be doing something right. On the other hand, my mother thought she was the perfect parent when my sister was born. Then I came along....heh. ismart- no idea. I call him a "he" out of the vague...

Here are some more shots of Sensei my Mantidfly. Thought I'd start a new thread for it Sensei seems to do fine on about one meal a day. Sometimes he'll eat a little more than that if I'm offering, but I've gotten into the routine of catching him one of whatever I find on the backdoor window in...

wow cool, i have read about how orthopterans stab the ground with their pointy butts to lay eggs but I have never seen that behavior. Thanks for the video! -Tomato

Heh, thanks for the advice but no, she wasn't putting me down and I was not being tooled or picked on. The exchange just got me thinking...it's frustrating that some folks don't seem to be willing to look outside their box even the least bit. Heh, the only reason she didn't leave the room right...

I wonder if you could keep dermestids out of your mounted bugs by chemically treating them with something, maybe something greasy like hexane or glycerol that'll really get in there and stay. -Tomato

A family friend came over today and was curious to see my pet mantidfly, Sensei. I showed it to her and she grimaced. She asked me a bunch of kinda mean sarcastic questions like "does he talk to you?" She seemed amused/disapproving of the fact that I would so much as keep the jar clean and the...

no! Have you examined them? Any signs of anything? At least now you can mount them or something. -Tomato

Yeah they are huge and something about the bright yellow spots on their butt awakens in me that same animal instinct that we all share--bright colors signal danger. The truth is, the males, while territorial, don't even have stingers. The females do have stingers, but they are not aggressive and...

Haha, beginner ruck! Wait, don't you have a chameleon...? Aren't they famous for their Miyagi-like way with the flies? Me personally, I have not made any serious attempt at culturing flies for Sensei. He only eats like one or two small critters every 24 hours or so so I just go outside and...

I didn't have my camera so no pictures, sorry. I was hanging out after class at Riverside Park around 114th street or so, enjoying the sun setting over the Hudson River (and West Side Highway...noisy) and soon find myself among dozens of gigantic (2"+!!) wasps buzzing about. I saw a few of them...

If they're hungry they'll go for any bug you put in there as soon as you put it in. It's hilarous, Sensei swivels his head around, then his whole body, and his antennae start wiggling back and forth. I guess it's a bug's way of twiddling its fingers and licking its lips. The other day, I tried...