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you mean not hanging from something? theres no way it would moult if it wasnt upside down. it did not even try to moult. i dont think anything would have worked cos they hate disturbance of ANY kind. the cotton was the least intrusive method i could devise to help it hang like they do. it may...

update. it is now dead - it had lost grip on all claws so I tied cotton thread round each leg and hung it in the moulting possition. thought it might work for abit but it just never happened, probably cos it couldnt go through its premoult behavioral patterns or something. anyway it got weaker...

" If it has six sections it's a female" im not sure thats strictly true. i have some heirodula nymphs i have been trying to *** and this is what ive noticed. when very small the males and females look very similar. Later, in females the first six segments grow to be about the same size. The...

do female mantids 'call' males with a special pheramone at mating time like moths? if so that might be a possibility to attract males if you live where mantids live wild. somebody might like to experiment

hey neil. do your mantids have two rows of small dots on the dorsal surface (thats top 8) ) of the abdomen. cant really see any other features apart from a faint dark splodge on the outside of their 'fore-arms'. mine are about L4, about 5cm long.

ok Christian; when (or if) i get an adult one i'll send it. i have some from two different sources so you may have to ID two. they are still small so it may be a while.

spiders can bite back. i fed a big house spider to my first ever mantis, an adult female budwing. it bit its front leg, paralysing it and 'ruining' a really nice mantis. :( it was a big spider in relation to the mantis though, small ones should be ok.

I was going to post a similar question. I have some Hierodula grandis nymphs and was wondering how they can be distinguised from the similar Hierodula Membrenacea species. Are there features that can be used for a positive ID? And has anyone tried crossing them and seeing if the offspring are...

yeah, one legs useless. one more idea ive had is tying very fine thread around its back leg and hanging it up by that. it may not even notice it. would have to be just before it moulted as it would go haywire and probably break its leg off. :lol:

my african flower mantises happily take small spiders. they appear to know somethings up with them as they seem to take unusually cautious bites at the fang area especially, almost though they fear a bite. they normally tuck strait in to something like a fly. wouldnt be suprised they can taste...

it hasnt moulted yet. thought it would last night but nothing. trouble with doing anything like you suggest is its impossible to know when its gonna moult - could be hours, days or weeks! i'll post pics if it turns out good. I hope to get some of it expanding the wings (some chance) i thought...

thanks for the idea - i may have to do that, i certainly aint given up yet on the lil fella. at the moment its on a 1 inch thick strip of mesh, holding on by its one good foot. its taking a heck of a long time to molt though; its 71 days so far! when the time eventually comes to moult (its...

I think i might know what might cause this (just theoretical - I would need a microscope to see properly). The developing soft new hooks inside the skin may have been pulled forward inside the old skin so they are no longer lined up properly with the joint in the old hooks, hence the hook cannot...

I think its just excess liquid from food. my idolos and grandis both did it and both were completely healthy. what happens if they eat to capacity is swell up with the food. they then extract the excess liquid with their kidney type organs (dunno what their called) and squirt it out and go...

one of my mantids had a bad moult so I fed it to another one (like you do :twisted: ) I offered up one of its legs first but instead of chomping on it like u would expect it started cleaning it just like they do with their own legs. weird other people have said they have seen mantids eating...

I think it helps with camoflage (how do you spell that :? ) breaks up the obvious insect outline of head-thorax-abdomen and makes them look less like an insect or anything much in particular; the flower mantises do this very well.

hi, the legs may have been damaged but they look ok on the outside at least. there are no dry or dark segments to speak of; they don't appear dead, just non-functional. but i did have a thought that could explain the issue. When being fed it would often attempt to grab a fly but miss and impale...

sub-adult male is around 8 weeks and coming up to moulting into adult, ie stopped feeding and wing buds going darker. unfortunately its lost grip in the two hind legs, like my other one at L7. it probably wont be able to hang from the top to moult properly. anyone any idea why this happens? it...

i've put a soon to moult, brown h grandis nymph on a potted gerbera plant, so it should be seeing alot of green. Interesting to see if it does turn green, i doubt it will though.

just bought some h gradis nymphs, some brown and some green. I thought this was just genetic difference but now i'm not sure. One of the green ones moulted a few days ago and at first it was green but after a day has disappointingly gone brown! The cage has no green in it and is quite dark. I...