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Two more of Dr. Mantis Toboggan, M.D. using the new macro tubes for my camera. Yay no more cropping!

I hear they are a difficult species. I have been pouring over the idolomantis consolidated thread in here--tons of great information and high quality pictures. I think I'm ready!

I just want to post because I am suuuuper excited to start raising Idolomantis Diabolica! Anyone currently raising them? I'd love to see some pictures and read some stories about them!

EDIT: Idolos just hatched at mantidkingdom.com! Looks like theyre going fast! I'm sure I'm not the first person in this forum looking, but I would really like to get an orchid or idolo or two to raise.

Thank you! I haven't picked up a real camera in years, so I'm a bit rusty. I have a macro lens on its way, so that should make things really clear and crisp!

Pecan Sandy (i6):

I'm new to the hobby as well. I second MantisGirl13's recommendation. I ordered four ghost mantises because I thought I was going to end up accidentally killing one or two. They are all still alive and seem to be thriving. Minimal care is needed--I check on them multiple times per day, but...

Thank you! They are awesome little friends! I have two greens and two browns.

Just got access to a good camera, so here are some pictures of the crew! I'm hoping to get some macro lenses soon. So I have had The Gang for about two months now. They arrived (what was described on the sellers website) i4-i5 and have all molted once. They are happily munching on blue bottle...

*Moved to OP*

My initial guess would be how prone to predation each specific species is, and how well the threat display works. Given that our current understanding of evolution is survival of the fittest, I would imagine the species that have such vivid displays have gone through hundreds, if not thousands...

Comparison of (what I believe) a freshly molted l5 and l6. The darker, smaller guy is Mantis Toboggan and the bigger lighter guy is Ongo Gablogian

Thanks! It was relatively easy to do. I just set up a webcam and used the Windows 10 camera app to take pictures in 5 second intervals. Once I snapped enough pics (about 1,800 of them) I stitched them together using a program called ffmpeg. The last part was not intuitive at all, but if there is...

I woke up this morning before work to find this guy mid molt! I rushed to get my camera set up and tried my best to get this going so I wouldn't be late. Full timelapse here So heres how I made this time lapse. If you want to follow this exactly you will need a USB webcam that will capture...

PM yer dead! I want to play around with epoxy casting and I want to try preserving mantises. PM me if you have any mantises who have met their grisly fate!

I'm curious if anyone has any dead specimens they would possibly ship? Or if you have a mantis or other special invert that you would like preserved, I am trying to learn how to preserve insects via epoxy casting. I would pay for some well preserved and exotic dead specimens, or would only...

I tried feeding a spike to one of my more easy-going male ghosts and he didn't want anything to do with it, so I figured none of them were going to go after them until they hatched...TIL. I was also worried I was gonna smoosh the spike with my tweezers, so I kinda shelved that whole idea and...

Thanks for the feedback MantisGirl13! I ordered blue bottle spikes, but I was unaware just how long they would take to pupate (been 6 days now...definitely buying pupae next time around). I went to the local pet store and bought the smallest crickets I could find and I have been basically hand...

I know my mantises dying is an inevitability, so I'm curious of this communities methods on preserving these beautiful creatures. I have some casting epoxy and some silicone molds, so my first foray into insect preserving is going to be this route, but I would like to know what you do and if...

Thank you so much for the reply Synapze! I figured I was on the right track, and I tried to do as much research beforehand as possible--I just remember when I was a kid and my mom found my first praying mantis and it survived maybe 12 hours and died, so that fear and slight trauma is making me a...