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Keep them well-ventilated and somewhat dry, I had the worst die-offs when they were too humid--just make sure to provide them with fruit or a source of water to drink from or else they will not produce many oothecae. The oothecae require humidity or they will quickly dry out. They'll take...

Hmm, perhaps just a reflex to try to reach the end of the leg so they're less likely to start at the middle and drop a piece of leg?

I had some once, but I did not succeed in breeding them. My female mated with my two males, but died before laying any oothecae. I've been trying to get some, but I haven't managed to find them available since then.

When mine are having working on a small piece of food stuck on their face that they can feel and taste, but can't get their mandibles around, they shake it off as though it were a piece of debris.

Yes, I thoroughly enjoy my Avicularia. They're pretty, docile, and fairly undemanding. Poecilotheria are similarly pleasing, but they get so much bigger, are so much faster, and come with a considerably more dangerous bite. I have no problems handling my Avicularia, but the Poecilotheria are...

I keep Poecilotheria metallica, and they've done well with the same conditions I keep my Avicularia, just a little bit more dry. I keep them well-ventilated and provide them with a source of water. If you insist on keeping them very humid with moist substrate, you'll want even more ventilation...

Connection 83 days after receiving them as L2 nymphs. That's 11 days after she molted into an adult. Here's to hoping for a new generation.

Long-term, the flytrap won't last. The mantis' poop will release nitrogenous waste and cause its death as the soil is fertilized.

Mantises like sweets and probably do better if provided with some source of carbohydrates. Some people use honey, I use a sugar solution that's about 50% sugar and 50% water. I use sugar water because mantises are more likely to come into contact with sugars in the form of nectar in the crops...

Do not leave live food in his enclosure. If it's something with chewing mouthparts, he won't be able to properly defend himself and will get eaten alive. If it's a feeder like a fly, he probably won't be able to grab it with his hunched back. It will only make him expend energy uselessly trying...

If he's unable to eat properly, the prospects aren't very good. He cannot molt until he's eaten enough and gained the resources to produce a new exoskeleton.

It's best to keep female mantises warm and well-fed for at least a couple weeks before you introduce the male so that their reproductive systems have started working and they're receptive and not hungry. It would be best if you don't introduce him until you've seen her start calling, but...

Puncturing it to drain it should be avoided unless you think it'll tear on its own and become a bigger wound than you'd produce with a pinprick. It's a bubble of hemolymph, which means it's connected to the rest of its body's supply of hemolymph and could spread an infection.

Crickets do not have lungs, as they breathe through their spiracles which lead to the tracheal system like other insects. The large "bubbles" you would want to remove are the crop, midgut, and intestine as they're filled with whatever the crickets have fed on--this could be pathogenic if it had...

When insects expand their wings, they do so by pumping hemolymph through the veins. If there's damage to the wingbuds, a bubble of hemolymph forms after expansion of the wings.

I've never seen this happen, but I never mist their containers or them directly. They get their moisture by drinking from the piece of paper towel I hotglue to the bottom of their lids for gripping when I wet it every couple of days. The rest of their moisture comes from their food and the sugar...

I've always loved these guys. The changes in color they go through from one molt to the next is always interesting to observe. I've never gotten the chance to breed these guys since I always seem to be left with all males or females.

I've found that the fibers of the fabric of vented lids come loose over time and that can cause mantises to fall during and after molting, but if they're remaining attached to the lid and still mismolting, it's unrelated. I'm inclined to agree that the mismolts are most likely because they're...

I have made attempts to save mantises that have mismolted in a similar way, but the ones as bent up as that usually either fail to initiate molting or they get stuck again and die. Only the less severely curved ones with at least three fully functional hindlegs ever seem to have a chance.

I hadn't really thought about the calendar--maybe next year. These were all taken with my iPhone 4S and I've found that it's possible to take pretty nice photos with the right lighting. Female about 20 hours after it successfully escaped its old exoskeleton. One of my three impatient males...